2020-03-23

West Bank

West Bank / Announcement / position paper

MUSAWA Demands an End to the Official Silence towards Stopping Legal Periods and Executive Deadlines during the State of Emergency

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession expresses its astonishment and disapproval of the continuation of the state of official silence and the failure to take the legal requirement to suspend the statute of legal limitations and the implementation deadlines during the state of emergency, and declares it condemnation of the failure of the Transitional Council and the Judicial Coordination Council to request the executive authority represented by the Presidency and the Government to take the necessary legal requirements guaranteeing the mentioned requirement, which shall preserve the rights of litigants, safeguard legal centers, and protect the right to access justice, although a long period has elapsed since the declaration of the state of emergency and restrictive process as a requirement to confront the Coronavirus, and despite the wide range of demands for legislative intervention to protect rights by suspending such limitations and deadlines. Such legal requirement is an important measure to prevent the violation of human rights and to prevent the requirements of the state of emergency from deviating from their objectives, in accordance with the explicit provisions of the articles governing the state of emergency in chapter 7 of the Basic Law, in particular Articles 110 and 111 thereof.

MUSAWA associates itself with the litigants, agents, and lawyers, who call upon the official authorities to enforce the legal requirement immediately. MUSAWA also believes that the Transitional Council and the Government should ensure the prompt fulfillment of this requirement by the executive authority, in keeping with the obligations of public office, and in an attempt to prevent any human rights prejudice, including the right to access to justice and its guarantees.

The time has come to break the law-breaking silence and the rights-violating reluctance.

Issued on 23/3/2020

MUSAWA