This book is the first comprehensive examination of UN efforts to protect Palestinian human rights in the territories occupied by Israel more than 50 years ago in the 1967 War. Working through the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, three top international legal experts - Richard Falk, John Dugard and Michael Lynk - served for six consecutive years as unpaid Special Rapporteurs with a UN mandate to report on Israeli violations of international humanitarian law and human rights standards. Being outside the discipline that controls UN bureaucrats, they enjoyed a high measure of political independence in carrying out their factfinding and reporting missions. Strikingly, despite their differences in background and political outlook, they came to a unanimous consensus confirming the routine and various Israeli violations of Palestinian basic rights.

This book recounts their frustrations, their trials, their experiences, and their conclusions. It provides an authoritative go-to resource, tracing in painstaking detail, in all its aspects, one of the most onerous, longstanding and abusive human rights situations facing the United Nations. Underscoring the importance of this mandate as providing an independent witness to the evolving deleterious effects of the continuing occupation of Palestine by Israel, Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine provides a documented, comprehensive record of violations by Israel and its ongoing defiance of international law and UN resolutions. It is likely to be the book of record on this subject.