Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) is an independent, local Palestinian child rights organization established in 1991 to promote the rights of children living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It also investigates and documents human rights violations against children, provides legal services to children in urgent need.[2]
In October 2021, Defence for Children International - Palestine was designated a terrorist organization by Israel, together with five other Palestinian NGOs: Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.[3] The designation was condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,[4] and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who called it a “frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement and on human rights everywhere.”[5] In July 2022, nine EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden) issued a joint statement saying they will continue working with the six Palestinian organisations that Israel had banned because Israel had failed to prove that they should be considered terrorist groups.[6]
On 18 August 2022, Israeli forces raided the headquarters of the six organisations along with the Union of Health Work Committees (outlawed in 2020) in Ramallah and al-Bireh, removed computers and equipment and ordered their closure.[7][8]