Palestinians protest against the construction of Israel's separation wall near the West Bank village of Jayyous. (Maan Images)

Sixty years ago, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a powerful, universal call to treat all human beings with dignity, respect, opportunity and equal rights. The 28 articles of the declaration are stunning in their simplicity, clarity and sheer human decency. The declaration remains a beacon of hope for those people around the world in situations of oppression, occupation or marginalization.

I especially admire the preamble, which says that, "... the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world," and adds that, "... if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

Also 60 years old this autumn is the Palestinian refugee situation. Curious about the linkage between these two anniversaries, I sat down for a chat in Beirut this week with Karen AbuZayd, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the body charged with meeting the basic needs of Palestinian refugees.

When I asked how she saw overall refugee conditions and needs, her reply was stark: "Of the 28 basic human rights in the Universal Declaration, not a single one is being observed in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."

In this anniversary week, it is worth recalling what happens when people's fundamental rights are ignored or denied for decades on end. AbuZayd's sole mandate is to provide the most basic human services to the refugees in the absence of a political agreement that ends their refugeehood. She knows about rights and refugees.

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She notes that in three of the five regions where refugees live - Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza - conditions are very bad and deteriorating in some cases. In Gaza, where she lives, troubling and measurable new signs of human distress are emerging, largely due to the impact of the Israeli closure of the borders for normal commercial traffic. Israel only opens the border once a week or so to allow minimum replenishment of UNRWA's stocks of food and medicine.

"Normal life has almost come to a halt," she says. "There is no money and so the banks and businesses cannot operate normally. Products smuggled in through tunnels are expensive and beyond the reach of most people. Basic services are erratic, including power, water, sewage networks. Cooking gas shortages are the latest problem, and we're now seeing people cooking with firewood in their apartments."

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