Resolutions to suspend the Israeli Association of United Architects(IAUA) from the UIA at General Assembly DURBAN 2014

This sequence of documents are related to the resolutions and petitions by the international architects' institutions and NGOs to support the suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) from the UIA (International Union of Architects).

1) RIBA Council Resolution of 19 March 2014 to support the suspension of the IAUA

MOTION TO RIBA COUNCIL               19 MARCH  2014

Continue to Condone?

As seen in the world media in the past few months, there is increasing concern and condemnation worldwide over the illegal settlement-building by the Israelis to house nearly 600,000 Israeli settlers on Palestinian land, against international law.

There is mounting pressure for us not to continue to condone what we as a profession find unacceptable, where projects are being created on occupied land that defy the rights and international agreements made between Israel and Palestine since Oslo in 1993, and passed in numerous UN Resolutions since 1967.

Illegal Settlements

Israel's colonial settlement policy, has continued relentlessly over the last 5 decades in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem. The active collaboration of architects and planners has been central to the creation of hundreds of illegal settlements in serious breaches of the 4th Geneva Convention  which prohibits a state from moving its civilians into territories it occupies. Further, ‘Judaisation’ projects within Israel itself, in the Negev desert and Galilee involving the dispossession of thousands of Palestinian citizens -including Bedouin, to create new Jewish settlements, are now being implemented against vociferous public protest. All of these projects involve Architects, Planners and Construction team to create them.

Worst Years of Abuse

2013 has been declared one of the worst years in human rights abuses and violence against the Palestinian people under Israel’s military rule. Amnesty International’s latest report documents Israel’s killings and brutalization of Palestinians in the West Bank over a three-year period, during peaceful protests against the illegal Separation Wall and the expropriation or their village land to expand Israeli settlements.

UIA's Resolution 13 passed at Istanbul in 2005 and re-confirmed at Brazil in 2009 states that “The UIA Council condemns development projects and the construction of buildings on land that has been ethnically purified or illegally appropriated, and projects based on regulations that are ethnically or culturally discriminatory, and similarly it condemns all action contravening the fourth Geneva Convention”.

Many representations concerning these projects, involving discriminatory Israeli law, have been made to the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA), which has detached itself from it's members’ continuing activities against professional ethics and the UIA Accords. The RIBA await acknowledgment of our letter of 28 Feb 2014. In fact the illegal settlement policy has accelerated in defiance of peace talks, severely compromising any possibility of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. The UIA, having made its position clear, must now act on the violation of it’s code of ethics and defiance of it’s resolution.

RESOLUTION

Since the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) has paid no regard to the UIA resolution 13 of 2005 and 2009, the RIBA calls on the UIA, as the international guardian of professional and ethical standards in our profession, to suspend the membership of the Israeli Association of United Architects, until it acts to resist these illegal projects, and observes international law,  the UIA Accords and Resolution 13. 

Signatories

Angela Brady, PPRIBA FRIAI FRSA

Ted Cullinan, CBE, FRIBA RA

Will Alsop RA OBE, FRIBA

Charles Jencks, Architect, Historian

Neave Brown, FRIBA, Architect

Peter Ahrends, FRIBA

Richard Murphy, OBE, RIBA, RIAS

Hans Haenlein, RIBA, OBE

Cezary Bednarski, RIBA

Abe Hayeem, RIBA, Ch. Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP)

Jeremy Till, RIBA, Head of SMCAD, Pro-Vice Chancellr UAL

Murray Fraser, Architect, Head of Bartlett School of Arch.

Gordon Murray, PPRIAS, RIBA MIArb RTPI, Prof. Strathclyde Uni.

John Warren, M.Litt. RIBA, FRTPI, FSA. Chairman of the World Heritage Committee of ICOMOS UK

Jonathan Ball, MBE AA Dipl RIBA ACI Arb FRSA

George Oldham, RIBA Council

Owen O’Caroll, RIBA Council

Elspeth Clements, RIBA Council

Tzena James. RIBA Council

Sam Webb, RIBA Council

Kate Macintosh, RIBA, MBE

Bob Giles, RIBA

Louis Hellman, RIBA

Hubert Murray, FAIA, RIBA

Walter Hain, Architect

Ahmad Barclay, Arb.Architect, Visualising Palestine

Alan Berman, RIBA

Martin O'Shea AADipl RIBA MFPWS

David Berridge, RIBA

Paul Barham, RIBA

Gail Waldman, RIBA

Ed Hall, RIBA

Barry Wilson, RIBA

Kelvin Bland RIBA.

Faisal Khan,RIBA

John Stebbing, RIBA

Jonathan Freegard  MA (Cantab), Dipl.Arch., RIBA

Malcolm Hecks, RIBA

Graham B. Stephen, RIBA

John van Rooyen, RIBA

Ralph Carpenter, RIBA

Richard Scales, RIBA

Sean Macintosh, RIBA

Aun Qurashi, RIBA

Christopher Milson Teague, RIBA

Edwin Jay Rutledge, Architect

John Murray, Architect.

Catherine Macdonald, RIBA

Nicholas Wood, M.A. (Cantab) RIBA  FRGS

Take Bane, RIBA

Michael Goulden, Architect

Oliver Willmore, RIBA

Glen Robinson, Architect

Thomas E Castle, Retired RIBA

Nasser Golzari, Architect, Year Tutor, Oxford Brookes

Yara Sharif, Architect, Year Tutor, Oxford Brookes

Richard Clayton, RIBA

Jenny Clayton, RIBA

Dimitris Argyros, RIBA

John R Evans, RIBA

David Yeaman, RIBA

Kim Silburn, Arb Architect

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2) International law and UIA Accords: Why RIBA/UIA should act on IAUA          20 July 2014

1. Background

1) The UIA Council in Brazil confirmed in a letter (12 August 2009) to all member countries, the UIA view on the issue of Israeli policy in Palestine that was made as Resolution 13 at the UIA Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey from 8^th to 10^th July 2005 as follows:

“The UIA Council condemns development projects and the construction of buildings on land that has been ethnically purified or illegally appropriated, and projects based on regulations that are ethnically or culturally discriminatory, and similarly it condemns all action contravening the fourth Geneva Convention

There has been no response to this condemnation from Israeli architects and the IAUA, and the projects continue in even greater profusion. There have been numerous UN, EU and FCO reports and condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the oPts, as illegal under international law, including reports from Israeli and international human rights organizations like B’Tselem and Amnesty Int’national

From B’Tselem Report of Israeli Settlements called “Land Grab”-May 2002

“Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the only one of its kind in the world and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such as the apartheid regime in South Africa.”

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3. International Condemnations of Israeli Planning and Containment Policies

UIA Accord, and Codes of Conduct.   http://apjp.org/legal-aspects-of-architectural/

“Rules of ethics and conduct have as their primary object the protection of the public, caring for the less powerful and the general social welfare, as well as the advancement of the interests of the profession of architecture.”
also: Principle 2 - Obligations to the Public: 

“Architects have obligations to the public to embrace the spirit and letter of the laws governing their professional affairs, and should thoughtfully consider the social and environmental impact of their professional activities.”

2.1 Standard: “Architects shall respect and help conserve the systems of values and the natural and cultural heritage of the community in which they are creating architecture. They shall strive to improve the environment and the quality of the life and habitat within it in a sustainable manner, being fully mindful of the effect of their work on the widest interests of all those who may reasonably be expected to use or enjoy the product of their work."

 Article 10 The UIA ethical code for consultants says it should take action even if an outside body makes a complaint to the UIA about the misconduct of architects in building illegal settlements.

Article 10.
(1) "The common objectives of all professional organisations are to establish and promote the highest standards of ethical conduct and excellence in the practice of the professions, to regulate the professional conduct of the members of the professions and to cooperate with their allied professional organisations. (2) In line with the foregoing objectives, it shall be mandatory upon a professional organisation to take appropriate action on any formal complaint for unethical conduct filed against any member of its profession by a co-professional, a client, a professional organisation or a government regardless of the residence of the complainant".

Article 1.4:  to maintain public confidence in the integrity and the ability of architects by demanding that Member Sections of the Union ask their architects to act with the highest moral and professional standards. NOTE: This has not been done and when approached, the IAUA’s response has been “We do now and than express our opinion on different projects, but only from architectural point of view. The members of our organization are of course entitled to their individual political opinion and acting upon it.”

The IAUA in general over the years have refused to ever condemn or stop the illegal projects.

UN Resolutions

“The policy of Israel in establishing settlements in the occupied Arab territories has no legal validity and constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention…” United Nations Security Council Resolution 452<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_452>1979
 
“The participating High Contracting Parties… reaffirm the illegality of the settlements in the said territories and of the extension thereof.” Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Resolution ES-10/6<http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/8FC4F064B9BE5BAD85256C1400722951> 2001

The International Court of Justice in 2004 found in an Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, delivered on July 9th, 2004, that "the construction of the wall, and its associated regime are contrary to international law" and that "Israel is under an obligation to dismantle forthwith the structure", also “The Court concludes that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law.” The International Court of Justice <http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1677.pdf  It advised the UN Security Council to consider ‘further action’ ie.sanctions.

March 28th, 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution (A/HRC/25/L.37/Rev.1) demanding that Israel "immediately and completely cease all of its settlement activities in all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory".14,000 new settlement homes were approved and 500 structures were demolished during the nine months of peace talks.

Housing  projects involving the dispossession of Palestinian and Bedouin citizens within Israel itself, have continued relentlessly,  defying Articles 7 ,17 and 25 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights relating to discrimination and the right to shelter, and against UIA Accords .

Amnesty International Resolution 2010

“Israel’s policy of settling its civilians on occupied land violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and is considered a war crime, according to the statute of the International Criminal Court.” Amnesty International <http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/illegal-israeli-settlement-plans-threaten-palestinian-human-rights-2010-10-15> .

Report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. February 2012 “Inequality and discrimination are foundational elements of the Israeli state, not incidental to it,”  The report not only documented the many examples of inequality enshrined in law in Israel and also challenged Israel to show how defining itself as a Jewish state “does not result, in any systematic distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin in the enjoyment of human rights.

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