Valentina Azarova is a researcher and practitioner working at the intersection of movement lawyering, transformative justice, and international law. They hold a PhD in law from the University of Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights. Valentina co-founded and co-directed the Al-Quds Bard Human Rights Program at Al-Quds University (2009–2013), taught on the MA in Human Rights and Democracy at Birzeit University (2013–2015), and has since held research and teaching posts at institutions in Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They are co-founder of the Emergent Justice Collective and co-convenor of the Research Area on Intersectionality, Abolition, and Transformative Justice at the Feminist Autonomous Centre for research. Their research and publications focus on international law in the Palestine context, the laws of violence, and legal mobilization in social justice struggles.
From this author
Hundreds of businesses continue to operate freely and without consequence in some 250 settlements Israel has erected. In March 2016, member states of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) decided to act on this issue: Through HRC resolution 31/36 they tasked the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) with setting up a database of such businesses and reviewing it annually. The OHCHR announced in a January 2018 report that it had created a list of 206 businesses, the names of which it intends to disclose “in a future update.”
The database is a unique transparency tool and soft power enforcement mechanism that could provide a service to states and their corporate nationals who may become involved in illegal business activities.
Palestine’s membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally goes into effect April 1, 2015. As Palestinians and proponents of international justice worldwide await the Office of the Prosecutor’s next move, it is important to assess what heavy-lifting the ICC could realistically undertake in the Palestine-Israel context as well as what other accountability avenues exist.
Palestine gained membership of UNESCO in 2011 but its representatives have not yet made best use of this new status due in part to pressure by Israel and the United States. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Nidal Sliman and Guest Author Valentina Azarov review the value of UNESCO in the quest to fulfill Palestinian rights and to apply the relevant international law instruments to the case of Palestine.
