Ref:
19/2015

On Monday, 11 May 2015, the Palestinian Center for Human
Rights (PCHR) organized a workshop for a group of young activists on the death
penalty and extra-judicial execution in the Palestinian Authority. The workshop
targeted a group of university students and civil society activists in
cooperation with Youth and Environment Association and was attended by 28
persons, including 18 females. The participants discussed opinions and
perspectives related to the death penalty and the need to abolish it. Mohammed
Abu Hashem, a legal and human rights researcher at PCHR, facilitated the
workshop.

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 the 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.

This workshop is part of PCHR’s efforts to abolish the death
penalty and end the phenomenon of extra-judicial execution. PCHR targets youth
groups, especially university students and civil society activists, 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.