Ref: 3/2012

On Monday, 16
January 2012, the Palestinian Canter for Human Rights (PCHR) organized a seminar
titled “The Right to Form Associations under the Palestinian Authority
(PA)” in the hall of Roots Restaurant in Gaza City.  This seminar was organized in the light of
the report lately issued by PCHR on “Palestinian Violations of the Right
to Form Associations in oPt, November 2009 – October 2011.”  This report issued by PCHR is the second of
its kind under the state of Palestinian political division.

This seminar
aimed at shedding light on Palestinian violations of the right to form
associations, particularly under the significant increase in these violations
since the internal division in mid June 2007. 
Besides, it sought to enrich the dialogue, discuss the mechanisms of
protection and promotion of the right to form associations and highlight the
work of NGOs independently and freely.

Mr. Hamdi
Shaqqura, PCHR’s Deputy Director for Program Affairs, opened the seminar.  He stressed that PCHR has made intensive
efforts since it was established to promote the right to form associations as a
part of its interest in the civil and political rights.  Mr. Shaqqura added that PCHR has dedicated
efforts to defend this right, including offering legal assistance in this
regard.  He also pointed that freedoms in
any society are measured by the status of the civil society and the space of
freedom and independence given to the society’s institutions.

Mr. Shaqqura
displayed the report on the “Right to Form Associations Under PA, November
2009 – October 2010”.  He stressed
that the ramifications of the internal fragmentation have resulted in the
deterioration of Palestinian violations against human rights, including the
right to form associations.  Shaqqoura
highlighted that both of the governments in Gaza and Ramallah have continued to
perpetrate violations against associations and NGOs during the reporting
period.  These violations coincided with
the imposition of additional restrictions through a series of administrative
practices and measures taken by the two governments against NGOs in general.  With the imposition of such restrictions, the
space available for the organizations became narrow.

In his
presentation on “Mechanisms to Promote the Right to Form Associations,”
Mr. Mohsen Abu Ramadan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NGO Network –
Gaza, spoke about the historical role played by the Palestinian NGOs since their
establishment.  He also tackled the
organizations’ role in the first Intifada and the services and
development projects still offered at the agricultural, health, educational
levels and so on. Abu Ramadan criticized the restrictions imposed on NGOs under
the state of fragmentation, pointing to the decision made by the Interior Minister
in Gaza no. 48/2010, which prevents the civil employees, who abstained from
joining their jobs in the civil service sector, from joining NGOs, even as
voluntary work.  Abu Ramadan considered
this decision as a form of undermining the civil work, stressing that the
Ministry of Interior restrictively supervises the work of NGOs.  Abu Ramadan stressed that the Ministry of
Interior aims at practicing control over these organizations.  Besides, he requested that this control should
be consistent with the law.  Eventually,
Abu Ramadan considered that minimizing the work of NGOs and narrowing the space
of freedom offered to them would result in resorting to violence and taking the
law into the hands in the case of injustice.

Mr. Ala’
al-Saqqa, the lawyer of Sharek Youth Forum, talked about the experience of
defending the Forum against the two decisions to close and dissolve the Forum taken
by the Attorney-General and the Interior Minister respectively.  Al-Saqqa pointed that he challenged those two
decisions as the second decision surpassed the decision taken by the Supreme
Court on explaining the reasons of closing the Forum, and it was preemptive to
the court’s decision.  He believed that
what had been issued relevant to the dissolution decision was not issued in
accordance to the law, but according to the Attorney-General’s vision.  What is evident about that is the statement
issued on 20 July 2011 on the website of the Ministry of Interior that states:
“We recommended the Ministry of Interior to take the legal measures to
dissolve Sharek Forum.”  Al-Saqqa
considered the decision to close the Forum by the Interior Minister a violation
of the Palestinian Basic Law and Charitable Associations and Community
Organizations’ Law no 1/2000.  He
explained that penalties in the law are personal, while collective penalties
are not allowed.  Similarly, the decision
to dissolve Sharek Forum is a personal punishment as well.

In his intervention,
Mr. Ayman Ayesh, Director of Research Department at the Ministry of the
Interior, talked about the Ministry’s vision of the right to form associations.  Ayesh noted that the Ministry of Interior
started to set a systematic and strategic plan on the manner of applying the
law when dealing with NGOs.  The Ministry
started by several steps, the most important of which are: preventing the
security services from intervening into the affairs of NGOs; re-forming the
Department of the Affairs of NGOs to be more dynamic and able to deal with
NGOs, including raising the efficiency of workers through specialized courses;
re-arranging relationships in the concerned departments in the Ministry of
Interior and the concerned ministry that supervises the civil work; and forming
joint committees among ministries.

At the end of
the seminar, discussion was allowed, and the participants stressed the
necessity to promote the right to form associations.  The speakers answered several questions
raised by the audience.