In response to escalating abuses in Gaza and across the Occupied Palestinian Territory before and since October 7, 2023, the University Network for Human Rights has led documentation and legal analysis of the crimes of genocide and apartheid; submitted briefs to the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice advocating for protection of Palestinians and for accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity; and engaged third States on their responsibilities to not be complicit in atrocities.

Alongside our research and advocacy, described in further detail below, UNHR has institutionally spearheaded an international community of scholars, experts, and practitioners across universities and NGOs conducting critical research and advocacy to protect Palestinian human rights and the legitimacy of international legal mechanisms, amid ever-deteriorating conditions for human rights work.

Genocide in Gaza

In May 2024, in partnership with students and experts at Boston University, Cornell, University of Pretoria, and Yale, the University Network published Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023. The report is the most thorough legal analysis to date of the “crime of crimes” expressed in the 1948 Genocide Convention and the related international jurisprudence, as applied to the facts on the ground in Gaza since October 7. It concludes that Israel’s actions meet the legal threshold of genocide, producing legal obligations for Israel and the international community to end the slaughter. The report was submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

In August 2024, UNHR submitted written observations to the International Criminal Court regarding its issuance of arrest warrants for crimes in Palestine, including Gaza. The University Network also collaborated on three briefs in federal litigation in California over the U.S. government’s support of Israel’s actions and related violations of human rights. The first was filed jointly with the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the only trade union representing Palestinian journalists across the occupied Palestinian territory, including the approximately 1,200 journalists who were based in Gaza before October 7. This case sought to block further military, diplomatic, and financial support to Israel on the grounds that the United States has a duty to prevent and not enable genocide. The second sought to end the Biden administration’s complicity in violations of international law. The third, by international legal scholars, supported Mahmoud Khalil in his case challenging his illegal detention.

Apartheid in Israel

With international human rights clinics at Cornell and Boston University Law Schools, UNHR published an analysis of the crime of apartheid and its application to Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) before and after October 7, 2023. Consistent with the findings of other human rights and international law experts, we found that Israel has committed and continues to commit the crime of apartheid as defined by the 1973 United Nations International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. This report also found that academic institutions of higher education have obligations under the Apartheid Convention – all further argued in an op-ed in The Guardian and in an appearance on Democracy Now!.

Torture of Palestinian Detainees

In October-November 2025, UNHR submitted a report to the UN Committee Against Torture on documentation of torture, including sexual torture, against Palestinian detainees in Israel since October 7, 2023. Members of UNHR traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present to the Committee’s 83rd Session. Our report contributed to the Committee’s findings, issued following the session, that Israel is engaged in systematic acts of torture against Palestinians.

Water Rights Violations in the West Bank

UNHR is preparing a forthcoming report on water access in the West Bank and violations of Palestinians’ right to water under international law.

Other Research and Advocacy

UNHR was among the first human rights organizations to explicitly warn of human rights abuses and humanitarian disaster in Gaza following October 7, 2023, in a statement published in English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish. UNHR also circulated a letter to university administrators about of violations of freedom of expression and academic freedom on U.S. university campuses in the immediate aftermath.

UNHR has submitted a report on the transfer of weapons by the United States and Canada to Israel to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and requested a thematic hearing; collaborated on a February submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians; and submitted a Universal Periodic Review report to the United Nations on attacks of pro-Palestine protests on US campuses, traveling to the UN in Geneva for accompanying meetings and advocacy.

We have also signed and disseminated a number of open letters calling for the protection of human rights in Gaza and the United States and of the authority of international legal mechanisms (list up to date as of Spring 2025).