Great Expectations, Bitter Realities: Human Rights Abuse and Economic Decline under the Oslo Process

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) is convening one-day workshops entitled "Great Expectations, Bitter Realities: Economic Decline and Human Rights Abuse under the Oslo Process" in New York and Washington DC this April.

Click here for the Summary of Proceedings [pdf]
Click here for the Washington, D.C. agenda [pdf]
Click here for the New York City agenda [pdf]

The Washington DC workshop will be co-sponsored by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine and American Muslims for Jerusalem in Washington, DC on Friday, April 14th. The workshop will be held on Capitol Hill.

The New York Workshop will be co-sponsored by American Muslims for Jerusalem and Columbia University Student Groups. It will be hosted by the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University on Tuesday, April 18th.

The workshops will bring together over 100 academics, activists and NGO leaders to critique the multiple failures of the Oslo process to deliver justice and prosperity to Palestinians.

The workshops have two main goals. The first is to present three years of in-depth research on the socio-economic impact of the Oslo process, compiled by a team of Palestinian and international researchers under the auspices of CESR. This research documents human rights violations linked to declining Palestinian living conditions, and proposes a set of concrete policy recommendations for Israel, the Palestinian Authority and international donors.

The second goal is to provide a forum for comprehensive assessment and critique of the Oslo process, with an emphasis on developing alternative policy proposals. With the approach of final status negotiations, it has become ever more important to develop and project a critical voice on Oslo, especially in the United States where public discourse on these issues is extremely narrow and one-sided.

To facilitate these goals, each of the three workshop sessions will begin by presenting the relevant CESR research report (the reports will be distributed in advance to all workshop invitees). These presentations will be followed by responses from a panel of experts and then by open discussion with the audience.