JERUSALEM – Today the world marks the 57th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article one of the Declaration states that, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." 57 years after the historic Declaration, Palestinians are no closer to the realization of the rights guaranteed to all human beings by its revolutionary provisions.

Palestinians are still a people and a nation that are repeatedly being denied the most basic of freedoms, such as: the right to life, liberty, freedom of movement and nationality. The failure to grant Palestinians statehood, and the failure to pressure their occupier (the State of Israel) into the implementation of all relevant UN Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions, rests upon the shoulders of the international community. In many ways this failure is an embodiment of the failure of the international system.

MIFTAH would like use this anniversary to remind the United Nations and its Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan that the situation in the Palestinian Territories is ever worsening. Furthermore recent developments in the occupied territories such as the continued building of Israel's Annexation and Segregation Wall, the ever-expanding illegal settlements, the daily killings, collective punishment and the clear threat to obstruct the democratic process in Palestine (the Palestinian Legislative elections) offer little scope for optimism and hope.

Moreover, there remains one aspect of the Palestinian dilemma that sadly no one chooses to highlight or resolve, namely the Palestinian refugee crisis. According to the United Nations Relief and Works agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to date there are 4.1 million Palestinian refugees still waiting for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 194.

MIFTAH calls on all parties involved in the Middle-East conflict to pressure Israel to stop its occupation of Palestinian lands and people, and to force Israel to negotiate a just peace with President Mahmoud Abbas.

MIFTAH reiterates its fervent belief that genuine and comprehensive negotiations are to be the only alternative for peace that this region so needs and yearns for.

Lastly MIFTAH calls for a genuine implementation of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH, is a non-governmental, non-partisan Jerusalem-based institution dedicated to fostering democracy and good governance within Palestinian society through promoting public accountability, transparency, the free flow of information and ideas and the challenging of stereotyping at home and abroad.