Ref: 47/2009
Date: 15 October 2009
PCHR Director Attends 12th Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Meeting of International Commission of Jurist’s Executive Committee, and Meets with ICC Prosecutor and Palestinian Minister of Justice (Ramallah)
On 15 and 16 October 2009, Mr. Sourani will make an oral intervention at the 12th Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The session has been called to address “The Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and East Jerusalem”. The draft resolution submitted by the Palestinian delegation contains three separate issues, focusing on Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, the findings and recommendations of the Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report), and Israel’s continuing illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. PCHR, and a number of other Palestinian and international human rights organizations, have already made a written submission to the Council, urging its Members to act effectively to address the human rights situation in the OPT. PCHR believe that the recommendations contained in the Goldstone Report detail appropriate and necessary measures to ensure accountability. In light of Israel’s unwillingness to effectively investigate crimes committed over the course of the Gaza offensive (27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009) it is essential that recourse be had to international judicial mechanisms. International justice is the only option available to Palestinian victims of Israeli crimes, it is the only mechanism where those accused of the most serious crimes – including war crimes, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and crimes against humanity – can be tried, prosecuted, and held to account. PCHR stress that human rights, international law, and the rule of law are essential components to a just and lasting peace.
In the afternoon of 14 October, Mr. Sourani and a delegation from FIDH met with Mr. Louis Moreno-Ocamp, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The delegation was composed of Raji Sourani, Antoine Bernard, FIDH Executive Director, Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President, and Mariana Pena, FIDH Permanent Representative to the International Criminal Court. The discussion related to the preliminary analysis undertaken by the ICC Prosecutor following the declaration accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction lodged by the Palestinian Authority on 21 January. The meeting centred upon three main axes to be considered by the Prosecutor, namely: the ICC jurisdiction over the situation; the gravity of the crimes committed; and the admissibility of the situation in the ICC system, i.e. the willingness and capacity of national tribunals to conduct domestic proceedings for crimes under ICC jurisdiction.
On 14 October, Mr. Sourani met with the Palestinian Minister of Justice in Ramallah, Ali Khashan, to discuss the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and in particular to address potential mechanisms of international accountability. The meeting focused on the endorsement and implementation of the Goldstone report, in light of the upcoming 12th special session of the Human Rights Council.
On 11 and 12 October 2009, Mr. Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), attended a meeting of the International Commission of Jurist’s Executive Committee. The International Commission of Jurists is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and understanding of the rule of law, Mr. Sourani is currently serving as a member of the Executive Committee.
