from their obligations under the ICCPR in a time of “public emergency which threatens the life of the nation.” However, Israel has continuously renewed this state of emergency since its establishment in 1948, and the Human Rights Committee has made clear that conditions allowing the derogation of these articles must be “of an exceptional and temporary nature,” thereby invalidating Israel’s state of emergency as grounds for derogation.284 Furthermore, the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which applies to Palestinian citizens of Israel, specifically protects their rights to freely participate in civil society. The Declaration states in Article 2 that “Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain their own associations” and to “free and peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, as well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties.”285 Finally, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association emphasized in his report to the Human Rights Council in 2012 that: “Members of associations should be free to determine their statutes, structure and activities and make decisions without State interference… Associations pursuing objectives and employing means in accordance with international human rights law should benefit from international legal protection. Associations should enjoy, inter alia, the rights to express opinion, disseminate information, engage with the public and advocate before Governments and international bodies for human rights, for the preservation and development of a minority’s culture or for changes in law, including changes in the Constitution.”286 Israeli Polices and Practices Suppression of Organizations Closures of Non-Governmental (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) represent a severe and almost omnipresent obstacle to those 284 UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 29: States of Emergency (Article 4), CCPR/C/21/ Rev.1/Add.11, 31 August 2001, para. 2 285 The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted by The UN General Assembly, Resolution A/RES/47/135, 18 December 1992 286 UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kai, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (A/HRC/20/27), UN Human Rights Council, 21 May 2012, page 16. Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session20/ A-HRC-20-27_en.pdf 80