The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel ( ) was
created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect
human rights and civil rights in Israel
and the
territories under its control.
The
association was created in 1972 and its founders were a group of
people mainly academics from the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem
that felt the need for an independent
extra-parliamentary organization to protect civil
rights.
The association established its views on the basic rights that were
recognized in the
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, that was adopted by the
United Nations General
Assembly in 1948, and the values in
Declaration
of the Establishment of the State of Israel. Today the
association is the largest human rights organization in Israel, and
is the only organization in Israel that deals with entire range of
human rights, e.g. the right to live, freedom of speech and
information, the right for education, etc.
The
association is working to protect human rights through legislation
by promotion of civil rights bills; through judicial means, by
hearings in the different judicial instances, mostly through the
Supreme Court of
Israel
; through educational means; through public means by
writing publications, conducting continuing education programs in
the educational system, and conducting educational activities among
the Israeli Security
Forces.
The association is an organization of members that works through a
professional staff and volunteers. Among them, many central figures
from the fields of the law, education, press, from the academy and
from the general public. The association is completely independent
in its actions. Its financial resources come from the membership
fees and from donations in Israel and around the world. It does not
receive money from political parties or from the government.
In 2000, ACRI received the Israel Bar’s annual prize for
Contribution to Law and Society in Israel.
As of 2009, the president of the association is the author
Sami Michael.
Among the organization's previous
presidents: Professor Ruth Gavison and
Israeli Supreme
Court
Judges Shimon Agranat
and Haim Cohen
The
Emil Grunzweig
Human Rights Award is an annual award made by the association
to "an individual or NGO that has made a unique contribution to the
advancement of human rights in Israel". The award was established
in 1981 but was renamed in 1983 after the murder of activist Emil
Grunzweig by a grenade thrown by a right-wing sympathizer during a
Peace Now demonstration against the war in Lebanon.
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