Sourani Participates in Activities in Solidarity

PCHR
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Press release

Ref: 45/2012
Date: 13 May 2012

Sourani Participates in Activities in Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has continued its efforts to support the cause of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons, in the context of advocacy activities to support this cause at the human, legal and political level.

On 10 May 2012, Mr. Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, held a meeting with leaders of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris. Mr. Sourani is the Vice President of FDIH. The meeting discussed possible ways for the FIDH to support Palestinian prisoners and their cause. In the conclusion of the meeting, the participants approved a number of activities in this regard, including conducting visits by an FIDH delegation, which will include a number of physicians and lawyers, to Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons. The delegation will meet leaders of prisoners and leaders who have been on hunger strike. FIDH will also participate in the solidarity event organized by PCHR, in cooperation with the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, in Cairo on Monday, 14 May 2012. Furthermore, the 168 member organizations of FIDH will organize a sit-in in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike.

At another level, Mr. Sourni participated in the tenth annual conference of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11 May 2012. During the proceedings of the conference, the issue of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prison and their living conditions under their ongoing hunger strike were addressed. Besides the conference, ILAC hosted a panel debate on the topic of “Legal Reform and the Arab Spring – is there a role for the international community?”

The panel was comprised of Samir Annabi, Tunisian attorney and head of the recently established Tunisian Anti-Corruption Agency; Jan Thesleff, Sweden’s ambassador to Tunis and Libya. The panel was moderated by Todd Benjamin, a former anchor, correspondent, and financial editor for CNN. The participants discussed the implications of the Arab revolutions, and the dual standards and selectivity in the application of international humanitarian law by the international community, the most notable example of which is the issue of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons.

On Monday, 14 May 2012, PCHR, in cooperation with the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, will organize in the Syndicate's premises in Cairo an event in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained in Israeli prison. A number Arab and international organizations will participate in the event, including the Arab Lawyers Union, FIDH and others. A delegation of families of Palestinian prisoners and prominent ex-prisoners from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab communities inside Israel will also participate in the event The delegation of families from the Gaza Strip, which traveled to Egypt this morning, is headed by the mother of Ibrahim Baroud, a Palestinian prisoner, while the families from the West Bank will be headed by the wife of Marwan Barghouthi, who is detained in Israeli prisons.

Members of the delegation will hold a series of meetings in Cairo. They will meet with members of the Political Committee and the Human Rights Committee in the Egyptian Parliament. They will also meet with Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and the Assistant Secretary General for Palestine's Affairs. They will not meet with the Secretary-General because he is currently outside Cairo.

Activities in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners will continue in the upcoming days After participating in the solidarity event in Cairo, Mr. Sourani will travel to Spain to participate in two central events organized by solidarity organizations and the Arab House Society in Madrid and Cordoba, marking the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (the uprooting of the Palestinian people from their lands in 1948. The events will be focused on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons.

On 21 May 2012, Mr. Sourani and Fadwa Barghouthi, the wife Marwan Barghouthi, a prisoner in detained in Israeli prisons, will hold a press conference in Paris.

ENDS

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