2021-09-30-accounts - Lawyers For Palestinian Human Rights

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date Day01 Month10 Year2020 Day30 Month09 Year2021 From To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) Charity's principal address	Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights	Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights



	1175498

	C/O Bates Wells Braithwaite,
	10 Queen Street Place
	London
	Postcode	EC4R 1BE

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Tessa Gregory	Chair
Fiona Mckay	Vice-Chair
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC
Geraldine Isherwood	Hon. Treasurer
Professor Bill Bowring
Nusrat Uddin	Safeguarding
Jocelyn Hurndall








Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name		Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

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Type of adviser Name

Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Tareq Shrourou (LPHR Director)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Articles of Association Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Incorporated Charity 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 new and currently confidential specific work in the context of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court newly-opened full investigation into the situation in Palestine.

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 continued work pursuant to our 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. The UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines completed its Initial Assessment in October 2020 and determined that our complaint merited further examination. This decision was covered in the Guardian by its Diplomatic Editor. LPHR subsequently has been engaged in a confidential further examination process with JCB and the UK National Contact Point for the remaining duration of the annual reporting period.
We continued our constructive engagement with UK Government officials and parliamentarians on legal and human rights issues affecting Palestinians. We also continued our constructive ongoing collaboration with other UK charities that work on issues affecting the Palestinian people, including Christian Aid and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
We are in the eighth 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 continued work pursuant to our 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. The UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines completed its Initial Assessment in October 2020 and determined that our complaint merited further examination. This decision was covered in the Guardian by its Diplomatic Editor. LPHR subsequently has been engaged in a confidential further examination process with JCB and the UK National Contact Point for the remaining duration of the annual reporting period.

Respecting Children's Rights:

LPHR supported Save the Children in its constructive engagement with the Foreign Office following the publication of its new report entitled: 'Defenceless: the Impact of Israeli Military Detention on Palestinian Children'.

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 new and currently confidential specific work in the context of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court newly-opened full investigation into the situation in Palestine.

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 received an important outcome in our Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a detailed written decision in which it agreed with our legal submission that three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University were being unlawfully held in arbitrary detention by Israel's military authorities. Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ms Ruba Asi were arrested and detained in the summer of 2020, and subsequently convicted and sentenced due to peacefully exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association within a Birzeit University student group.

LPHR issued a public statement on the decision and raised this significant

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Section D Achievements and performance

matter with the UK Government by letter – we received a written response from Minister James Cleverly – and supported Sarah Champion MP in raising these cases directly with the same Minister.

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 eighth 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:

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 3,200.

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 was unable to provide one this year. 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.

This year's annual accounts have been calculated using the same accounting rules that has been applied for all prior LPHR's annual accounts submitted to the Charity Commission. Our accounting records are kept on file.

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 request.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature Tessa Gregory

Full name(s) Tessa Gregory

Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair etc)

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Date 7107122 TAR Maich 2012

Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights

UNAUDITED ABRIDGED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 30[th] September 2021

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Company registration number 10972293 Charity number 1175498

Abridged Statement of Financial Position as at 30 September 2021

Note Current assets: Gift Aid receivable Cash at bank Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 3 Funds of the charity: Unrestricted funds 4 Total charity funds	30 Sept 2021 30 Sept 2020 £ £ 0 0 33449 14087 33449 14087 -3333 -2472 30116 11615 30116 11615 30116 11615

For the year ended 30 September 2021 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.

The members have agreed to the preparation of abridged accounts for this accounting period in accordance with section 444(2A).

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The notes on page 3 form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements were approved by the board of directors and authorised for issue on 16th June 2022, and are signed on behalf of the board by: Tessa Gregory

Director 16th June 2022

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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.

2. Accounting policies

Basis of preparation

The abridged 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.

3. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
	2021	2020
	£	£
Executive’s fees	3333	2472
Travel & other expenses	-	-
	3333	2472

4. Movement on funds

	Balance as at 30 September 2021	Incoming resource s	Resources expended	Balance as at 30 September 2020
	£	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds	30116	68408	-49051	11615
Total funds	30116	68408	-49051	11615