Fateh Azzam is the Director of the newly established Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University in Beirut, and Senior Policy Fellow at AUB’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy. Previously, he directed al-Haq (1987-1995), was Human Rights Officer at the Ford Foundation (1996-2003), Director of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo (2003-2006) and Middle East regional Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until July 2012. He is co-founder and former Board Chair of the Arab Human Rights Fund.
From this author
The rights of Palestinian refugees have been long neglected and their suffering has been carried from generation to generation for 67 years. In his recent piece A Bold Proposal: Palestine Should Give Its Refugees Citizenship, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Fateh Azzam argued that the State of Palestine should confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and enter into bilateral agreements with other states regarding the status of Palestinian citizens in each country.
Palestine should confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and enter into bilateral agreements with other states to improve their situation – as citizens – wherever they reside. This proposal has pitfalls but it may be a powerful way to create facts on the road to freedom and rights.
It seems to be popular these days to persistently juxtapose what is assumed to be politically “correct” mass and popular movements against politically “incorrect” non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and professional institutions that do not necessarily have a popular base.
