Ref: 47/2014

On Tuesday, 02 December 2014, the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights (PCHR) organized a workshop, in cooperation with the
Merciful Hands Organizations Charity (MHC), for a group of government employees
and civil community activists on the death penalty in the Palestinian
Authority. The workshop was attended by 22 persons. The participants discussed
opinions and perspectives related to death penalty and the need to abolish it.

The workshop addressed a number of topics,
the most prominent of which were: the death penalty in domestic and
international laws; guarantees of the application of the death penalty under
domestic and international standards; controversy over the abolishment of death
penalty; and the legal and objective justifications for PCHR’s rejection for
the death penalty in Palestine. Moreover, the workshop addressed the
application of extra-judicial executions for suspicions of collaboration with
Israeli forces and how they pose threats to the safety and security of the
Palestinian society and the rule of law. Mohammed Abu Hashem, a legal and human
rights researcher at PCHR, facilitated the workshop.

This workshop is part of PCHR’s effort to
abolish death penalty, as PCHR targets youth groups to encourage the youth
contribution to the promotion of human rights and creation of a new generation
of human rights defenders.

It should be noted that this workshop is part
of a project implemented by PCHR in cooperation with the Representative Office
of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Palestinian Authority.