Ref: 18/2008

Date: 18 June 2008

PCHR Organizes 2 Workshops on the Death Penalty under the PNA

The Democratic Development Unit (DDU) at PCHR organized two workshops on the death penalty under the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The first workshop was organized in cooperation with the Panorama Center on 11 June in the Air and Light Association in the town of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Yunis. The second workshop was organized in cooperation with Oases Benevolent Society on 15 June in PCHR’s Khan Yunis branch. Intellectuals and civil society activists from Khan Yunis attended both workshops.

The two workshops were organized as part of the Center’s Abolition of the Death Penalty project that aims to increase public awareness about the death penalty under the PNA, and to formulate public opinion to abolish the death penalty in Palestinian legislation. In addition, the workshops aim to increase awareness about Israeli extra-judicial executions, which are considered a form of death penalty. These activities also aim to introduce PCHR’s work to the audience, especially its work against the death penalty.

Both workshops discussed the growing international movement towards the abolition of the death penalty in national legislations, since the death penalty is one of the most serious human rights violations that infringes upon the right to life, and is a form of cruel and inhumane treatment. In this context the workshops pointed that on 18 December 2007 the UN General Assembly issued a decision on a moratorium on the death penalty as a prelude to complete abolition.

The discussion in the two workshops was extended and in depth, with differing opinions varying from support to objection to the death penalty