OPT/Israel: Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights Organisations One Year After US Sanctions
Front Line Defenders stands in solidarity with Palestinian human rights organisations that continue their essential work despite intensifying restrictions and reprisals targeting human rights defenders and organisations working to protect Palestinian human rights.
Thirteen months on, in October 2026, Front Line Defenders marks the anniversary of punitive sanctions imposed by the United States Department of the Treasury on Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). On 4 September 2025, the U.S. Secretary of State designated these organisations under Executive Order 14203, for “directly engag[ing] in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent”. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, in turn, implemented these sanctions and added the organisations to its SDN List. These measures remain in place.
The sanctions have severely impacted the organisations’ ability to carry out their human rights work and continue to impair their pursuit of accountability for human rights and international humanitarian law violations committed against the Palestinian people. In this context, Front Line Defenders remains deeply concerned about the increasingly restrictive civic space faced by human rights defenders and organisations working to protect the rights of the Palestinian people, at both local and international levels.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the months that followed, the US administration imposed a wave of sanctions against international mechanisms and organisations, working to protect human rights and uphold the international rule of law. Such measures first targeted and sanctioned ICC officials, including the Prosecutor and judges of the Court. In June 2025, the US Department of the Treasury designated Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organisation advocating for prisoners' rights, as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’.
On 9 July 2025, the US Secretary of State sanctioned Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation in the Palestinian territory, just days after her report on the role of international corporations, particularly in the displacement and replacement of Palestinians in the o ccupied territory, was published. While earlier designations in 2021 by Israeli authorities attempted to cast human rights defenders and organisations as ‘threats to security’, the sanctions imposed in September 2025 through Executive Order 14203, marked a serious escalation and demonstrated the potential use of legal measures to penalise any entity or person facilitating legal processes before the ICC. The sanctions were widely condemned by the UN High Commissioner for human rights and different UN experts.
For years, the investigation work and documentation of human rights violations carried out by Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, PCHR, and Addameer, have been fundamental in supporting evidence for legal proceedings concerning alleged war crimes and genocide before the ICC in cases prosecuting individuals and at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). As discussed in different reports, the organisations have experienced severe operational consequences because of the sanctions, including restrictions on banking and financial services, loss of funding, inability to pay staff, disruption to digital platforms and services, and loss of key civil society partners.
U.S. sanctions laws prohibit U.S. citizens from engaging in any activities, directing or indirectly, with sanctioned organisations, unless such activities are exempt from the sanctions prohibitions or authorised by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control. Even where activities appear not to be prohibited by U.S. sanctions laws, fear of adverse consequences and internal corporate policies may result in the termination of relationships with sanctioned organisations. In addition, the sanctions restrictions can have a significant chilling effect on the activities of non-U.S. organisations due to their concerns about also being designated if they support the sanctioned organisations.
Numerous recorded testimonies have reportedly disappeared from YouTube, a US-based digital service, resulting in the erasure of critical evidence of war crimes from public view. This resulted in outcry from U.S. non-governmental organisations, who suggested that the deletion of the videos was not necessary under U.S. sanctions laws. According to one press report, YouTube took this action “as a direct result of State Department sanctions,” quoting a YouTube spokesperson as saying that “Google [YouTube’s parent] is committed to compliance with applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws.” Following the designations, U.S. civil society partners terminated joint initiatives with the sanctioned organisations amid fears of facing sanction-related risks.
The continued application of these sanctions not only restricts the work of Palestinian human rights defenders and organisations, but also undermines access to international accountability mechanisms and contributes to the existing chilling effect on civil society actors seeking to cooperate with them to advance justice for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including atrocity crimes such as genocide, committed against the Palestinian people. These measures have the effect of obstructing accountability efforts and shielding Israeli officials from scrutiny before international justice mechanisms.
The U.S. sanctions should also be understood within a wider pattern of restrictions affecting Palestinian human rights defenders and organisations. Israeli authorities have in recent years designated prominent Palestinian civil society organisations as ‘terrorist’ or ‘illegal’ organisations, raided and closed offices, seized documents and equipment, and imposed other restrictions affecting their ability to operate and engage with international partners. The addition of US sanctions has created a further layer of financial, operational and reputational pressure on organisations already working in an increasingly restricted civic space.
Despite these sustained pressures, Palestinian human rights defenders and organisations continue to document violations, support victims and pursue accountability, often in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
Front Line Defenders calls on the United States to immediately revoke the sanctions imposed on Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, and PCHR, and to lift the separate sanctions imposed on Addameer. We urge the European Union and its Member States to adopt practical measures to protect Palestinian human rights organisations from the extraterritorial effects of these sanctions, including by activating the Blocking Statute, safeguarding access to banking and essential services and ensuring sustained and flexible public funding where other sources of support have been disrupted.
The organisation also calls on donors to continue to support the critical work of Palestinian human rights groups as interlinked with donors’ own credibility to promote and protect universal human rights values. We call on U.S. based companies to mitigate the impact of such human rights violations through application of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Companies’ platforms must put human rights first.
We further call on States Parties to the Rome Statute to publicly oppose such measures that impede cooperation with the ICC and to take concrete steps to protect human rights defenders and civil society organisations engaging with international accountability mechanisms. Finally, authorities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory must ensure that all human rights defenders and organisations, defending the rights of the Palestinian people, are able to carry out their work in a safe and enabling environment, free from restrictions and the fear of reprisals.
