Ref: 155/2022
Date: 12 December 2022
Time: 11:12 GMT
Yesterday in the evening, a Tourism Police officer raided an event organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Lighthouse Restaurant in Gaza City to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, noting that the event was attended by human rights organizations and civil society organizations (CSOs.) The police officer ordered the organizers to call off the event allegedly for not having a permit from the Ministry of Interior to hold it; however, after ensuring that all necessary procedures were followed, the event continued.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Gaza Security Services’ insistence on imposing illegal requirements on peaceful assemblies although the Public Meetings Law no. 12/1998 does not require prior procedures or requests for holding meetings in closed public or private places. PCHR emphasizes that the violated meeting and other similar gatherings, workshops and seminars are all considered gatherings in a closed public place; thus, they do not fall under the meetings that require a notification according to the Public Meetings Law. PCHR stresses that meetings which require notifying the police 48 hours before holding them are only gatherings organized in open public places with the attendance of more than 50 persons.
On Sunday, 11 December 2022, OHCHR organized the annual ceremony to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the attendance of representatives from human rights organizations and CSOs. The event, which was organized in Lighthouse Restaurant in Gaza City after the organizers obtained a permit from the Ministry of Interior, included various performances, involving speeches and folklore songs. During a music performance, a Tourism Police officer raided the event and ordered the singer to stop, claiming that the organizers did not obtain a permit to hold the event, which stopped for a little time and then resumed after police officials intervened.
PCHR underlines the gravity of the procedures taken by the Ministry of Interior relevant to the public meetings in closed places, such as halls and others, which do not in any way require having a permit or notifying the competent authorities in order to hold them. Such procedures raise concerns among PCHR and other CSOs for being arbitrary and illegitimate restrictions on the peaceful assembly.
PCHR emphasizes that the right to peaceful assembly is one of the fundamental human rights and binding on the State of Palestine according to Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Pollical Rights, which Palestine has accessed to since 2014.
PCHR underscores that the executive regulation of the Public Meetings Law issued by Late President Yasser ‘Arafat, in his capacity as the Ministry of Interior, contradicts with the text and spirit of the Public Meetings Law and 2003 amended Basic Law. Thus, PCHR reiterates its call to repeal or amend this regulation in compliance with the law.
Hence, PCHR calls upon the security services in the Gaza Strip to stop pursing the peaceful assemblies and their organizers and to abide by law as well as not imposing illegal and arbitrary restrictions on those intending to hold such assemblies.