«Il n‘y a pas un monde développé et un monde sous-développé, mais un seul monde mal développé»
PRESS RELEASE
Criminalization of the struggle for Palestine’s liberation: Urgence Palestine, the CETIM and Omar Alsoumi appeal the UN again!
Geneva, Paris, March 18th 2026. In June 2-25, Urgence Palestine, with the support of CETIM, filed an appeal before the UN human rights protection mechanisms to denounce the French government’s repressive measures aimed at dissolving the collective, in flagrant violation of its human rights obligations. In March 2026, during the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, Urgence Palestine and CETIM once again appealed to the UN human rights protection mechanisms to denounce the criminalization and persecution of Omar Alsoumi, spokesperson for Urgence Palestine. Invited by CETIM on March 17th, 2026, Alsoumi addressed the plenary session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling on France to address the criminalization of the movement and its activists.
In November 2025, six of these organizations (1), drawing on a thorough legal analysis, called on the French authorities to account for allegations of violations and criminalization. Expressing concern over the use of a dissolution procedure lacking a factual basis, they directly questioned the French government regarding its respect for the rights and freedoms of association and individual rights.
The government’s response missed the mark, failing to address all of the UN mechanisms’ requests. In a short statement, the French government merely noted that the dissolution proceedings were still ongoing as of October 2025. Worse still, the government continues its crackdown on the entire Urgence Palestine movement.
From Montpellier, where the prefecture is relentlessly trying to ban its demonstrations, to local institutions in Lyon prohibiting any public speaking by Salah Hammouri, and including the numerous arrests and gagging proceedings faced by Urgence Palestine activists, the organization endures and fights on, time and again, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. Omar Alsoumi, a Palestinian activist, writer, and co-founder of the organization, is increasingly targeted by this repression. Multiple administrative and criminal proceedings have been launched against him, once again without any factual basis. It is in this regard that Urgence Palestine and CETIM have once again brought the matter before the UN, filing a new complaint with its relevant mechanisms.
Indeed, despite the stance taken by UN bodies against the criminalization of solidarity —which effectively constitutes international legal precedent that any activist for the cause can now rely on—, our struggle, and now our spokesperson, continues to face repression and criminalization!
Just as the proceedings against Palestine Action in the UK have now been defeated, and as with the proceedings already launched in Germany against Samidoun and currently underway in Belgium against the same organization, Western governments can no longer silence Palestinian organizations.
From the Yadan Law to the numerous trials across Europe and the organized surveillance of Palestinians in Europe, mechanisms of control, criminalization, and repression are intensifying against those who defend the Palestinian liberation struggle.
At a time when colonial control has never been stronger, in Gaza through the so-called Peace Council and in the West Bank through forced annexation, the West continues to demonstrate its complicity by repressing and silencing our movements. The ceasefire has merely concealed the ongoing genocide and the Israeli colonial apparatus, just as the U.S. imperialist aggression against Iran is merely a continuation of Israel’s colonialist and expansionist logic.
Urgence Palestine continues to denounce this; Urgence Palestine persists in the collective struggle, from the streets to the UN; our movement will continue to raise awareness and denounce the colonial regime and all its accomplices. We will remain determined defenders of Palestinian rights.
Together with CETIM, we once again urge the relevant UN mechanisms and bodies to call the French government to order, so that all proceedings against our activists are dropped. Our resistance continues until the full and complete liberation of the land and people of Palestine.
Watch the video of Omar Alsoumi’s statement to the UN Human Rights Council: https://webtv.un.org/fr/asset/k19/k197xoi18k (minute 49:05).
Note:
(1) Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association ; Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression; Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order ; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Contacts :
Urgence Palestine : +33686074753
CETIM : Raffaele Morgantini, CETIM representative to the UN, +41796606514, raffaele@cetim.ch
