2016-06-22

Ramallah

Human Rights Defenders

In the context of working towards achieving the goals and future vision of the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders (PHRDs) Network and ensuring the protection of human rights defenders in general and the Network’s members in specific, and as a first step toward establishing the Coalition for Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Declaration (PHRDD) which aims at putting decision-makers under pressure to adopt the PHRDD as a declaration of binding power, a meeting to introduce the PHRDD Coalition was organized by MUSAWA and the PHRDs Network and was held at MUSAWA’s Ramallah Office, and Gaza Office through video conference. The meeting was attended by 33 representatives of 20 organizations and unions, 12 of whom were females. From the West Bank, these organizations and unions included: Palestinian Bar Association, Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center, Palestinian NGOs Network, Teacher Creativity Center, ADWAR for Social Change Association, Hiwar Center for Youth and Women Empowerment, Thalassemia Patients’ Friends Society, Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling, Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union, Hurryyat Center, Land Research Center, Palestinian Consultative Staff, Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and QADER for Community Development. From Gaza, they included: Bar Association, General Union of Palestinian Women, National Society for Democracy and Law, Culture and Free Thought Association, Press House-Palestine, and Palestinian Working Woman for Society Development.

Throughout the meeting, there was an introduction of the goals, roles, and memberships in the PHRDs Network, and the key points in the proposal of the PHRDD. Also, there was discussion on the PHRDD Coalition in terms of its formation, the societal lobbying coalition, the role of organizations in expanding the coalition, the future and role of the coalition, and finally suggestions by the participating organizations.

At the end of the meeting, the attendees reached the following results: the participating organizations expressed their desire to join the PHRDD Coalition; a lobbying group will be formed to put pressure on decision-makers to adopt the declaration; suggesting ideas for the coalition’s role in the future in terms of making sure that things are being implemented on the ground and not only on paper and taking the necessary action regarding all violations against human rights defenders; the Teacher Creative Center representative will prepare a plan for the coalition and disseminate it; and MUSAWA will send a memo to decision-makers to demand the adoption of the submitted declaration proposal.

As a founder and member of the PHRDs Network, MUSAWA had prepared a proposal for the PHRDD at the end of December 2015, in cooperation with the Network’s members (individuals and organizations) including the Independent Commission for Human Rights and the Ministry of Justice. The proposal was sent to the Legal Advisor to the President, Mr. Hassan Al-Ouri, for approval and adoption. At the beginning of 2016, a delegation from MUSAWA met with his Excellency Minister of Justice, with the attendance of an EU expert, to submit the proposal. The former declared his intention to refer the proposal to the Foreign Minister to take the necessary action regarding the matter, which hasn’t been approved until this moment.