Ref: 39/2011

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the ban by
the Ministry of Interior in Gaza of the organization of a peaceful assembly by
workers on International Workers’ Day. PCHR further denunciates the intervention of security services into
public liberties and summoning of organizers of public meetings. PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to
respect the right to peaceful assembly and public liberties that re ensured
under the constitution and international human rights standards.
 

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately
20:00 on Saturday, 30 April 2011, Attorney Karem Mohammed Shahwan, from the
Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center (DWRC), received a phone call from the Police
General Investigation Department (GID), summoning him to the GID headquarters
in Ansar security compound. Attorney
Nashwan went to the headquarters of the GID, where he found that three staff
members of DWRC had been also summoned: Nidal Ghaben; Fayez al-‘Omari; and
‘Abdul Raziq Harara. Two other defenders
of workers’ rights had been also summoned. Attorney Nashwan stated to PCHR that a GID officer informed him that the
Ministry of Interior rejected their application for a license to organize an
assembly near the UN headquarters in Gaza City on Sunday, 01 May 2011, and that
the police would be deployed in the area to disperse any unlicensed
assembly. He added that DWRC, in
cooperation with union activists and defenders of workers’ rights had already
addressed the Ministry of Interior in Gaza to notify them or the organization
of a peaceful assembly near the UN headquarters to deliver a letter to UN staff
addressing the UN Secretary General demanding him to work towards ending the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and lifting the siege
imposed on the Gaza Strip. 

It is worth noting that GID officers summoned Attorney Karen
Nashwan and other activists last week in the aftermath of the Ministry of
Interior’s rejection of a similar notice they had sent to the Ministry that
they would organize a rally from Palestine Square to the Unknown Soldier Yard
in Gaza City on International Workers’ Day. 

In the same context, the GID in Khan Yunis dispersed a peaceful
assembly organized on Sunday morning in commemoration of International Workers’
Day near UNRWA offices in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza
Strip. A number of GID officers arrived
at the area and ordered two of the organizers to end the assembly and refer to
the GID headquarters in Khan Yunis, where they were questioned about organizing
a peaceful assembly without obtaining a license from the Ministry of
Interior. They were released later. 

In light of the above, PCHR emphasizes that:

1. The right to
peaceful assembly is ensured under Article 26 (5) of the Palestinian Basic Law,
and the Public Meetings Law No. 12 of 1998, whose Article 2 states: “Citizens shall have the right to hold
public meetings, gatherings, and processions, which shall not be infringed upon
or restricted, except pursuant to the provisions of this law.”

2. The governor
and chief of police, according to the law, does not have any legal right to
license or ban any public meeting, a peaceful rally or another other form of
peaceful assembly, and the legal provision is only limited to “notifying” the
governor or police by the organizers, and the police may place restrictions for
the purpose of traffic regulation.

3. Palestinian
security services are required to respect international human rights standards,
the Palestinian Basic Law and other relevant laws.