Ref: 123/2011

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns
measures taken by the police in Gaza to prevent the Palestinian Center for the
Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (MUSAWA) from organizing
a conference in Gaza through video conference with the West Bank on 29 and 30
November 2011.  PCHR emphasizes that
these measures constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of opinion and
expression and the right to peaceful assembly which are ensured under the
constitution.  They also violate the
Public Meeting Law No. 12 of 1998. 

MUSAWA had intended to organize the fourth justice conference under
the title “The Rights of Working Women and Available Mechanisms to Ensure them”
through the video conference.  It booked
the lobby of Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza for this purpose on 29 and
30 November 2011.  However, the police
general investigation department prevented holding the conference.  According to Attorney Mo’men al-Hattab,
coordinator of the event, at approximately 09:00 on 29 November 2011, MUSAWA’s
staff went to the lobby of Palestine Red Crescent Society and initiated necessary
preparations for the conference, including fixing the banners and checking the
video conference channel with Ramallah. 
At approximately 09:30, participants in the conference began to arrive.  At approximately 10:00, as the proceedings of
the conference began, two armed persons, who introduced themselves as officers
from the police general investigation department, arrived at the location.  They went to a representative of the
Palestine Red Crescent Society and ordered him to evacuate the lobby and cut
the sound and image in 10 minutes.  At
approximately 14:00 on the same day, al-Hattab received a phone from an
official from the Ministry of Interior who informed him that the conference was
banned because it did not include a speech by the Prime Minister in Gaza. 

It should be noted that the Public Meetings Law No. 12 of 1998
apermits people to hold public meetings freely. 
It stipulates that organizers must notify the governor or chief of
police 48 hours prior to the time of the meeting.  According to the law, a public meeting is any
meeting to which at least 50 persons are invited and which is held in an open
place.  Therefore, the Public Meeting Law
is not applicable to the conference that was supposed to be organized by MUSAWA
in the lobby of Palestine Red Crescent Society, and the organizers are not
required to notify the governor or the chief of police about it.  Nevertheless, Mo’men al-Hattab, one of the
organizers of the conference, notified the police about it two day earlier.

PCHR condemns banning the organization of MUSAWA’s conference in
Gaza City, and:

1. Calls upon
the government and security services to stop intervening in private conferences
and meetings as they do not require notifying concerned authorities;

2. Calls for
cancelling the Implementing Regulation of the Public Meetings Law which was
issued by the late President Yasser Arafat in his capacity as Minister of
Interior, because it contracts the spirit and text of the Public Meetings Law
and the Amended Basic Law of 2003.