Meezaan Center for Human Rights (MCHR) - Nazareth

Meezaan Center for Human Rights (MCHR), which was established in the year 2007, is a human rights organization active within the community of Arabs living within the borders of the Israeli state, on the Palestinian lands that have been occupied in 1948. MCHR concentrates on human and civil rights issues concerning the Arab minority inside and outside Israel, including the Palestinian territories that had been occupied in the 1967 war.

Based upon the conditions of political, social, cultural, economic and religious human rights in our community, our priorities outline our work and direct us to focus our efforts on three practical program areas:

1-   The legal issues of the Arab minority inside Israel as a whole, being discriminated against by the Israeli authorities who -despite their definition of Arabs as "citizens"- confiscate their lands and oppress their internationally acknowledged basic human rights.

2-   The legal issues of Palestinian people in the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, where we work on documenting the violations of human rights by the Israeli occupation forces, in addition to providing legal assistance in humanitarian and emergency cases and forming legal shield against such violations.

3-    The issue of religious freedom and belief, particularly in light of the non-stopping attacks against Islamic consecrated properties and the daily and non-stopping governmental transgression of the religious freedom of the Arab Palestinian community.

Hence,

1-    Meezaan Center for Human Rights focuses on maintaining adequate and professional legal representation of the Arab minority in all that concerns it as a minority in an occupied land; as well as raising awareness amongst the public and the non-profit organizations, throughout giving legal advisory and support as needed.

2-    We document transgressions and discrimination in every aspect of the Arab minority's existence, through authentic reports and publications that highlight and affirm these violations.

3-    We spread the word about such breaches to local and international agents and cooperators including the media, human rights organizations, parliament members and committees, academic institutions and research centers.

Our present goals

1- Tracking down violators of human rights and freedoms and prosecuting them.

2- Raising awareness of people and providing guidance and advisory in legal matters.

3- Providing legal aid and advice to Arab NGOs inside the green line.

What we do

 Pursue legal matters that concern the collective Arab community inside Israel.
• Private consultancy via messages or phone calls.
• Special advisory to public associations and organizations.
• Public guidance via frequent publications.
• Weekly legal newsletter on printed media.
• Internet-based service for giving general and/or particular advice.
• Publishing a semi-annual booklet.
• Giving educational and awareness-raising lectures.
• Covering the issues of the Arab community in the media.
• Legal observation to issues of religion and Waqf

Future Plans

Meezaan Center for Human Rights is currently in the phase of reorganization and recruitment, and we are looking forward to fulfill our goals and effectuate our view of the legal and public services, which is but the first stage of our plan, as explained earlier. Our future plans would touch on the following:
1- Setting up a solid and advanced center for legal consultation and observation.

2- Establishing a firm system responsible for the production of our legal periodic publications.
3- Building steady and direct legal and informational relationships, both on local and international levels.

Meezaan Center for Human Rights

www.Meezaan.org