Defence for Children International

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Defence for Children International

Abbreviation	DCI
Formation	1979
Type	INGO
Purpose	Protecting and promoting children's rights
Headquarters	International Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland
Location	38 national sections
Region served	Worldwide
Website	https://www.defenceforchildren.org

Defence for Children International (DCI) is an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) set up in 1979, during the International Year of the Child, to ensure on-going, practical, systematic and concerted international and national action specially directed towards promoting and protecting the rights of children, as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Nigel Cantwell was one of its founders and its current president is Khaled Quzmar of Palestine.^[1][2]

Defence 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.^[3]

In October 2021, DCIP 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.^[4] This accusation was supported by NGO Monitor who issued a report claiming DCI-P's ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel, have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P.^[5]

The designation of Defence for Children International – Palestine was condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,^[6] 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.”^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9][10]

• Defense for Children International-Palestine et al v. Biden et al

• Defence for Children International