Ref: 28/2011

On Monday, 09
May 2011, the Democratic Development Unit of the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights (PCHR) organized a panel discussion on the Right to Freedom of Opinion
and Expression under the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), in cooperation
with the Association of Unity and Youth Awareness.

The panel
discussion was held in the head office of the Association in Ma’an area in Khan
Yunis town, the southern Gaza Strip, and was attended by 17 members of the
Association.  In his presentation titled
“the Right to Freedom of Opinion under the Palestinian Authority,”
Mahmoud al-Efranji, a researcher in PCHR Democratic Development Unit, discussed
the right to freedom of opinion.  Later,
there was a discussion by participants on the concept of the right to freedom
of opinion and expression, international standards and domestic laws which
ensure and organize the freedom of opinion and expression in the Gaza Strip and
the West Bank, particularly in light of the political division.

This meeting is
part of a 3-year project, funded by the European Union and Oxfam Novib, whose
goal is to improve awareness and respect of human rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory.  Such meetings are
part of fruitful efforts made by PCHR to promote democratic awareness in the
Palestinian community under the lack of the Palestinians’ confidence in the
democratic process due to the political fragmentation and its consequences.