Ref: 100/2012

On 19 December 2012, the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR) received a delegation from the South African Representative
Office to the Palestinian National Authority (NPA), headed by Mlungisi W
Makalima, head of the representative office of South Africa.

The delegation members met with the lawyer Raji
Sourani, Director of PCHR, in PCHR’s head office in Gaza.  Mr. Sourani addressed the developments of
human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) referring to the
consequences left by the latest Israeli offensive on the people of the Gaza
Strip who have been already suffering from unprecedented deterioration at the
level of their living conditions and their enjoyment of different rights as a
result of the ongoing closure imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip for years.

Mr. Sourani also talked about the internal
Palestinian situation pointing to the positive atmosphere that currently
prevails and stressed the importance of pushing towards ending the Palestinian
division.

On 18 December 2012, Mr. Sourani and Hamdi
Shaqoura, PCHR Deputy Director for Program Affairs, received a delegation from
the Norwegian Representative Office to PNA. 
The delegation included: Mr.
Stein Torgersbråten, Head of Development Section of the Norwegian
Representative Office, Mr.
Erik Berggrav, Second
Secretary in the representative office, Ms. Marte Teie Hellum, Program Advisor,
and Montaha Aqel, from the Representative Office in Gaza.

The meeting with
the Norwegian diplomatic delegation discussed the current human rights situation
in the Gaza Strip and the consequences left by the latest Israeli offensive
which targeted civilians and civilian facilities.   There was an emphasis on the need to
intensify efforts to put an end to the repeated Israeli attacks on the rights
of Palestinian civilians in violation of the international humanitarian
law.  The meeting also addressed the
impacts left by the ongoing closure imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip that
prevents people of Gaza from enjoying their economic and social rights.

On the other hand,
yesterday morning, Sourani participated in a dialogue session organized by the
Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners in the Gaza strip with the
participation of Abdullah Abu al-Sebah, Minister of Prisoners in Gaza, and
Abdel Rahman Abu al-Naser, Dean of Law faculty at al-Azhar University. The
topic of the session was on the legal status of the Palestinian prisoners in
the light of recognition of Palestine as a State.

Mr. Sourani pointed out during the lecture that
Israel did not recognize the Geneva Conventions except for 43 days, so it does
not deal with Palestinian detainees as Prisoners of war.   Sourani emphasized that it is a right of the
Palestinians to refer to the International Criminal Court to seek the legal
application and enforcement of the Geneva Convention after Palestine was
recognized as an observer State.  He also
emphasized the importance of widely using this status as an instrument to
defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.