2017-04-27

West Bank & Gaza

West Bank / Gaza

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession and the Lawyers for the Rule of Law Groups (friends of MUSAWA) conducted a series of legal encounters (a total of 12 workshops) throughout April 2017, covering the following governorates: Gaza, North Gaza, Khan Yunis, Rafah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Tulqarm, Jenin, and Jericho. The Gaza Strip’s workshops were carried-out in cooperation with Civil Society Organizations, including the National Society for Democracy and Law in Rafah, the Brilliant Tomorrow Society in Khan Yunis, and Bena’ Society for Development and Empowerment in North Gaza. The workshops attracted both trainee and recent lawyers, as well as legal professionals. A total of 301 participants attended the workshops, including 128 women.

Mainly, the encounters aimed at introducing fair trial guarantees as stipulated in international agreements as well as in Palestinian laws, particularly the Palestinian Penal Procedure Law. The overall objective was to assess the actual implementation of these guarantees, as provided in international treaties, in the Palestinian courts.

At the end of each workshop, participants gave recommendations based on what was presented to them. These recommendations included raising the public’s awareness on the sound legal procedures of fair trial guarantees; training the police, security forces, Public Prosecution representatives and judges on the sound legal procedures to prevent any violation of the law; publishing an informative manual that tackles fair trial proceedings before, during and after trials; covering more areas in which awareness workshops are carried-out so as to include a larger number of our society considering the vitality of such topics; working towards the rescinding of the Decree-Law on the High Criminal Court as it negatively affects fair trial guarantees; keeping the Palestinian Penal Procedure Law intact without any amendments as it equally addresses the rights of the accused as well those of the lawyers; holding the violators of fair trial guarantees accountable; and finally qualifying lawyers and judges in the field of fair trial guarantees.