## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date Period end date Day01 Month10 Year2019 Day30 Month09 Year2020 **From To**
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name** Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights **Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any)** 1175498 **Charity's principal address** C/O Bates Wells Braithwaite, 10 Queen Street Place London **Postcode** EC4R 1BE
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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7
8
14
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17
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20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled to**
**appoint trustee (if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Fiona McKay||||
|||Sir Geoffrey
Bindman QC||||
|||Professor Bill
Bowring||||
|||Geraldine
Isherwood|Hon. Treasurer|||
|||Tessa Gregory||||
|||Nusrat Uddin||||
|||Jocelyn Hurndall||||
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|||**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**||||
|||**Name**||**Dates acted if not for whole year**||
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## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
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**Type of adviser Name** Tareq Shrourou (LPHR Director)
**Address**
## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Charitable Trust Deed Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Trust How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Trustees are appointed by a resolution of the Trustees passed at a Trustees' Trustee selection methods meeting (eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
LPHR works on a range of projects with the aim of protecting and promoting Palestinian human rights. We exclusively take a legal and human rights perspective in our work.
Our primary aim is to contribute towards achieving a positive transformation of the urgent and critical human rights situation for Palestinians. We work towards this through a combination of legal advice and support; human rights and international law education and advocacy; research, monitoring and urgent actions on human rights violations; policy engagement; and utilising human rights complaint mechanisms of domestic and international
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institutions.
Where possible we co-ordinate our work with human rights organisations in the region.
This year, the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in pursuit of the aforementioned objects, were:
- We continued to work on legal accountability in regard to the military attacks in Gaza in 2014. This included specific work following the announcement by the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court that it was ready to open an investigation into the situation in Palestine following its five year preliminary examination.
**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
- We submitted a comprehensive human rights complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises against JCB, a worldleading construction equipment company headquartered in Britain, in regard to its apparent involvement in human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory. We then engaged with the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines during the Initial Assessment phase of the complaint process.
- We launched the Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project. As part of this project, we made a joint submission with Addameer to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the military detention of a 22-year old Palestinian university student, Ms Shatha Hasan. We then made a further joint submission to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the military detention of three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University: Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ms Ruba Asi.
- We published a report with Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights (based in Gaza) and Medical Aid for Palestinians entitled: 'Chronic Impunity: Gaza's Health Sector Under Repeated Attack'. The report focused on the need for legal accountability.
- We made a submission for an Accountability Study being undertaken by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory, Professor Michael Lynk. We otherwise usefully engaged with the UN Special Rapporteur on a range of relevant human rights and legal issues.
- We sent a letter to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the oPt on outstanding concerns regarding the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism and making a request to consider the feasibility of an alternative enhanced UN-led access mechanism for Gaza.
- We continued our growing and constructive engagement with UK Government officials and parliamentarians on legal and human rights issues affecting Palestinians. This included preparing a briefing on how the UK government can respond to impending formal annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank and ongoing illegal settlement expansion.
- We are in the seventh year of our successful LPHR Student Network programme engaging students from London’s top law schools and universities.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
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You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
Section D Achievements and performance
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## Section D Achievements and performance
**Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
The main achievement of the charity this year has been to continue making progress in all aspects of our work to meet our primary aim of contributing towards achieving a positive transformation of the urgent and critical human rights situation for Palestinians.
Our progress in the last year is outlined below:
## **Business and Human Rights:**
LPHR submitted a comprehensive human rights complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises against JCB, a world-leading construction equipment company headquartered in Britain, in regard to its apparent involvement in human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory. We then engaged with the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines during the Initial Assessment phase of the complaint process. Our extensive preparatory work on the complaint involved liaison with the prominent Israeli human rights organisation, B'Tselem, the leading Palestinian human rights organisation, Al-Haq, and the UK charity EyeWitness to Atrocities (situated within the International Bar Association), for the purpose of gathering and reviewing potential evidence.
LPHR co-drafted a joint statement with Christian Aid, Amnesty International UK, War on Want and Quakers in Britain urging the UK government to take action following the publication of the UN Database listing three UK companies involved in settlement-related activities.
LPHR continued to engage in dialogue with the Foreign Office regarding the UK Government’s position of opposing the UN Database on companies involved with settlement-related activities.
## **Respecting Children's Rights:**
LPHR submitted a substantive letter to the Foreign Office urging its renewed impetus on the human rights issue of the systemic maltreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, which received a useful reply from the Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt MP.
LPHR continued to publish our bi-monthly Child Rights Bulletin, which aims to document and raise awareness of the serious violations of children’s rights that take place in the occupied Palestinian territory and to emphasise the applicability of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. LPHR gives special thanks to its Student Network for their excellent work supporting the preparation of the bulletins.
## **Gaza Accountability:**
LPHR continued to work on legal accountability in regard to the military attacks in Gaza in 2014. This included specific work following the announcement by the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court that it was ready to open an investigation into the situation in Palestine following its five year preliminary examination.
LPHR published a report with Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights (based in Gaza) and Medical Aid for Palestinians entitled: 'Chronic Impunity: Gaza's Health Sector Under Repeated Attack'. The report focused on the need for legal accountability.
LPHR made a submission for an Accountability Study being undertaken by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian
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Section D Achievements and performance
Territory, Professor Michael Lynk.
LPHR sent a letter to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the oPt on outstanding concerns regarding the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism and making a request to consider the feasibility of an alternative enhanced UNled access mechanism for Gaza.
As part of LPHR’s ongoing public affairs engagement, LPHR's Director has continued to pursue the issue of the need for credible investigations and legal accountability with the Foreign Office, including raising it during meetings with policy officials.
## **Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project**
LPHR was proud to have launched the Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project. As part of this project, we made a joint submission with Addameer to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the military detention of 22-year old Palestinian university student, Ms Shatha Hasan. Shatha was being held in administrative detention, without charge or trial, for a period of nearly six month. Shatha was released soon after submission of our complaint.
LPHR made a further joint submission with Addameer to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the military detention of three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University: Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ms Ruba Asi. Layan, Elyaa and Ruba were arrested and detained within the space of a month and criminally charged due to peacefully exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. They were still detained by the end date of the reporting period of this Trustees' Annual Report.
## **UN Special Rapporteur engagement:**
LPHR usefully engaged with the UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, on a range of relevant legal and human rights issues.
## **Government and Parliamentary engagement:**
LPHR continued to focus on building its engagement with government and parliamentarians on key legal and human rights issues affecting Palestinians. This engagement has been constructive in the last year.
## **LPHR's Student Network:**
The seventh year of the LPHR Student Network was very productive. LPHR's Student Network has been instrumental in preparing LPHR's Child Rights Bulletins. LPHR gives special thanks to everyone who participated with the Student Network this year.
## **LPHR Urgent Actions:**
LPHR continued preparing its Urgent Actions addressed to the Foreign Office, with several letters submitted on discrete and serious issues in the last year.
**LPHR Human Rights Blog, Legal Q&As, and Briefings:**
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Section D Achievements and performance
LPHR continued to publish our educational human rights blog, legal Q&As and briefings, so as to provide accessibly written, objective and legally accurate information to the public on current issues.
## **LPHR Website and Social Media:**
LPHR continued to use its website to provide accessibility to our work. We are also active on a daily basis on social media and continue to have a growing following on Twitter, which now exceeds 2,300.
## **LPHR Membership:**
LPHR continued to grow its membership in the last year and we are ever thankful for their vital support.
## **LPHR Executive Committee:**
LPHR Trustees recognise the high quality and dedicated work of its exceptional Executive Committee who are integral to the effective functioning of LPHR's work and activities.
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## **Section E Financial review**
The Charity aims to retain sufficient funds in its reserves at any one time in **Brief statement of the** order to meet its commitments for the forthcoming 6 months. This policy is **charity’s policy on reserves** reviewed regularly depending on the planned activities.
**Details of any funds materially** N/A **in deficit**
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
## **Section F Other optional information**
The Charity has unfortunately been unable to obtain an Independent Assessment of our annual accounts in time for the submission deadline. Our usual Independent Assessor, Ann Pfeiffer, who has very kindly provided an independent assessment of our accounts over LPHR's previous financial years (the last one before for the financial year 2017/2018), was unable to provide one this year due to personal circumstances. She kindly notified LPHR of this earlier this month, after having prior informed us that she will prepare this year's independent assessment. We have unfortunately not been able to find an alternative independent assessor in time for submission deadline of our annual report and accounts to the Charity Commission.
LPHR's treasurer, Geraldine Isherwood, prepared this year's annual accounts using the same accounting rules that she has applied for all prior LPHR's annual accounts submitted to the Charity Commission. She also has kept the same accounting records for LPHR as in all previous financial years.
Given these specific circumstances, we would be very grateful if a waiver could kindly be applied to submitting an independent assessment for this year's accounts. Thank you very much for your consideration of this exceptional request.
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
**Signature(s)** Geraldine Isherwood
**Full name(s)** Geraldine Isherwood
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**Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** Treasurer **etc) Date** 28/07/21
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Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (Company limited by guarantee and without share capital)
UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 30[th] September 2020
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498
The trustees present the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 30 September 2020.
|Registered office:|c/o BWB|
|---|---|
||10 Queen Street Place|
||London EC4R 1BE|
|Directors/Trustees:|Sir Geoffrey Bindman|
||Bill Bowring|
||Tessa Gregory (appointed 25thMay 2017)|
||Jocelyn Hurndall (appointed 23 May 2019)|
||Geraldine Isherwood|
||Fiona McKay (appointed 23 May 2019)|
||Nusrat Uddin (appointed 25thMay 2017)|
|Executive Director:|Tareq Shrourou|
|Bankers:|Co-operative Bank|
||Head Office|
||PO Box 101|
||1 Balloon Street|
||Manchester M60 4EP|
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Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498
Statement of financial activities for the year ended 30 September 2020
|Note
Incoming resources from generated
funds:
Voluntary income:
-
Membership
-
Grants and donations
-
Gift Aid
Total voluntary income
Activities for generating funds:
-
Investment income
4
-
Total incoming resources
Resources expended:
Costs of generating funds
Charitable activities
2
Total resources expended
Net movement in funds
3
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward|Total Funds
Year ended
30 Sept 20
Total Funds
Year ended
30 Sept 19
£
£
2,499
3,453
25,000
19,990
-
-
27,499
23,443
-
-
27,499
23,443
-
30,574
30,404
30,574
30,404
(3,075)
(6,961)
14,690
21,651
11,615
14,690|
|---|---|
This Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses in the year. All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities.
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Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498
Balance Sheet as at 30 September 2020
|Note
Current assets:
Gift Aid receivable
Cash at bank
Creditors: amounts falling due within
one year
6
Funds of the charity:
Unrestricted funds
7
Total charity funds|30 Sept
2020
30 Sept
2019
£
£
-
-
14,087
17,060
17,060
17,060
( 2,472)
( 2,370)
11,615
14,690
11,615
14,690
11,615
14,690|
|---|---|
For the year ended 30 September 2020 the company was entitled to exemption under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies. No members have required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year in question in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.
The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.
These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.
The notes on pages 4 and 5 form part of these financial statements.
The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 25th June 2021 and signed on its behalf by:
Geraldine Isherwood
Director
25th June 2021
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## 1. **General information**
The company is limited by guarantee, having no share capital and is registered in England and Wales. The address of the registered office is c/o Bates Wells Braithwaite, 10 Queen Street Place, London EC4R 1BE. The company was registered as a charity on 1 November 2017 with registration number 1175498 and merged with charity registration number 1142158.
## 2. **Accounting policies**
## Basis of preparation
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and The Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities issued in March 2005.
The charity has taken advantage of the exemption in Financial Reporting Standard No.1 from the requirement to produce a cash flow statement.
## Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the directors in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity. Unrestricted funds represent donations and other income, received or generated for the objects of the charity without further specified purpose, and are available as general funds.
Restricted funds, none of which were received in the current period are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor.
## Incoming resources
All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.
Where grants are received in respect of specific projects due to take place subsequent to the year end, then those monies will be treated as deferred income.
Voluntary income represents donations from patrons and other donors.
## Resources expended
Expenditure is included on an accruals basis as liability is incurred and is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.
Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
Governance costs include those costs associated with meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements of the charity and include any accountancy fees and costs linked to the strategic management of the charity.
All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories of the Statement of Financial Activities on a basis designed to reflect the use of the resource. Costs relating to a particular activity are allocated directly.
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Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2020
3. **Charitable activities – Advocacy, awareness-raising, lobbying, litigation etc.**
||Income|Expenditure|Surplus/
(Deficit)|
|---|---|---|---|
||£|£|£|
|Executive fees and support costs|-|30,574|(30,574)|
|Membership fees|2,499|-|2,499|
|Donations|25,000||25,000|
|TOTAL|27,499|30,574|(3,075)|
## 4. **Operating surplus**
This is stated after charging £Nil for directors’ emoluments and other benefits (2019 £Nil).
## 5. **Interest receivable**
No funds were held on deposit in an interest-bearing account and current account interest earned in the period was £0 (2019 £0).
## 6. **Trustees’ remuneration and expenses and related party transactions**
No remuneration or expenses were paid during the year to any trustee (2019 Nil).
There were no amounts outstanding to any trustees or other persons relating to the charity (2019 £nil).
7. **Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year**
|**Creditors: Amounts falling due within oneyear**|||
|---|---|---|
||2020|2019|
||£|£|
|Executive’s fees|2,472|2,360|
|Travel & other expenses|-|10|
||2,472|2,370|
8. **Movement on funds**
||Balance as at
20 September
2019|Incoming
resources|Resources
expended|Balance as at
30 September
2020|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||£|£|£|£|
|Unrestricted funds|14,690|27,499|(30,574)|11,615|
|Total funds|14,690|27,499|(30,574)|11,615|
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