Ref: 57/2009  

On Monday, 2 November 2009, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) organized a panel discussion on the right to freedom of opinion and expression in cooperation with al-Maghazi Cultural Center. Twenty activists and volunteers from al-Maghazi Cultural Center participated in this panel discussion which was held in al-Maghazi Cultural Center  in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

Salah Abu Hatab, social activist, facilitated the panel discussion. Mahmoud al-Efranji, researcher at PCHR’s Democratic Development Unit (DDU), presented a paper on “The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression under the Rule of the Palestinian National Authority”. At the end of the penal discussion, participants contributed to discussions on the concept of the freedom of opinion and expression, international standards and local laws organizing this right, and status of the right to freedom of opinion and expression under the rule of the Palestinian National Authority.

This panel discussion is a part of a series of meetings organized by PCHR aiming at raising public awareness with respect to democratic concepts and ways to enhance them in the Palestinian society. Such action is particularly important as a result of Palestinians’ deteriorating faith in the democratic process consequent to the international community’s boycott of the results of the Palestinian legislative elections of January 2006, and as a result of the internal fragmentation and its consequent destructive impacts on the Palestinian national cause.