Ref: 24/2015
Date: 26 May 2015
Time: 10:00 GMT

In view of the issuing another death sentence in the Gaza Strip, which is the third of its kind in the Palestinian Authority since the beginning of 2015, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reiterates its demand for the Palestinian President to sign the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

On Monday, 25 May 2015, the Court of First Instance in Gaza City sentenced M.Z.H., from al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in Gaza City, to death by hanging after convicting him of killing his uncle A.E.A., on the ground of a family dispute. The aforementioned person was found dead, as he suffered several stab wounds in 2008.

Thus, the total number of death sentences issued by the Palestinian Authority since 1994 has risen to 159, of which 131 have been issued in the Gaza Strip and 28 in the West Bank. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 74 have been issued since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The Palestinian Authority also executed 32 death sentences, of which 30 have been executed in the Gaza Strip and two in the West Bank. Among those executed in the Gaza Strip, 19 have been executed since 2007 without ratification by the Palestinian President in violation of the law.

PCHR is gravely concerned over the continued application of the death penalty in Palestinian Authority controlled areas, and:

1. Calls upon the Palestinian Authority, as a non-member observer state in the United Nations, to sign the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty 1989;
2. Calls upon the Palestinian Legislative Council, when convened, to reconsider the Palestinian legislations and laws relevant to this penalty, especially the Penalty Code no. 74/1936 applied in the Gaza Strip and the and the Jordanian Penal Code No. 16/1960 applied in the West Bank, and enact a unified penal code that is in line with the spirit of international human rights instruments, especially those pertaining to the abolition of the death penalty;
3. Points out that the call for abolition of the death penalty does not reflect a tolerance for those convicted of serious crimes, but rather a call for utilizing deterrent penalties that maintain our humanity; and