This would be the email to be sent to the people who has stayed at the Guesthouse and has any relation with the CYC.

That´s it.

Dear all.

How are you?

My name is Rodrigo Cortés. I am a Chilean lawyer and I volunteered at the CYC during February 2015. If everything goes well, I will be returning to Shatila soon.

When I stayed at the guest house, Glenda Andrade, a Brazilian journalist who is pursuing a PhD in Paris, was also there. We have been working together since. For example, we submitted on behalf of a Palestinian NGO working in Shatila, a written contribution to the Universal Periodic Review process of Lebanon, which Pre-Sessions took place in Geneva, last October -we also attended the Pre-sessions-.

We have more ideas in which we want to work:

Giving visibility to Shatila and its history

We are thinking in making videos and having a webpage. There are different approaches regarding this issue. For instance, one option would be to make (or try to make) something similar to:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424227/

Or, i a totally different approach, something similar to the campaign Droga5 did with the “Raise the River” idea.

Why giving visibility to Shatila?

Because we believe it is important to improve “Palestinians” position-leverage in any kind of negotiations we would like to have (with any counterparty).

Which are the other issues/ideas in which we want to work?

(i) Drinkable tap water at the camp. This is huge as it requires an “international project finance agreement”. But, it has not been done yet, so why wait on this if we can do this. Besides, a large part of Beirut does not have drinkable tap water.

(ii) Civil rights. For example, the “refugee” status which is being applied to Palestinians living in Shatila does not have any sense from a legal “human rights” standard.

(iii) Education. It is important to modify the way education is being taught at the camp. UNRWA´s curriculum should be modified, and higher education should be an option.

(iv) The Sabra and Shatila Massacre. Here, the strategy would be to request the Security Council at the UN to extend the jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Any of these is huge. So, if you want to work you are kindly invited.

If you want to contact us, please feel free to do it at:

rcortes , glendaandrade

Yours faithfully,

Rodrigo Cortés.

Attorney at Law. LLm. Mstr.