“It’s the first time, as a lawyer, I’m about to defend myself, not the people I work for.” Speaking as the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in Geneva discussed Palestine this March, Raji Sourani complained of attacks on human rights defenders’ most basic duties.

Sourani, who is the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), made these comments just after UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese had presented her report on systematic torture against Palestinians. For Albanese, torture is “the symbol of this genocide”: it devastates people’s bodies and dignity, while everything that makes Palestinians’ lives possible is being destroyed all around them.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the session, Sourani, along with Issam Younis, who is executive director of Al Mezan, as well as representatives from Al-Haq, described what it means to continue documenting these crimes while their organizations are under US sanctions. Sourani explained how even though “the genocide continues as we speak,” he and his colleagues are forced to talk about frozen accounts and salaries they can no longer pay. “Instead of talking about genocide and ethnic cleansing, we’re here defending ourselves, with our silly little concerns: How can our organization survive and continue to defend human rights?”