January 21, 2010
PCHR Receives Visitors from French Consulate and UNDP
PCHR Receives Visitors from French Consulate and UNDP

Ref: 6/2010


On 20 January, the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) received a delegation from the French Consulate
in Jerusalem, as well as a representative of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in its head offices in Gaza City.

 

In the morning, Radhia Oudjani, the
French Consulate’s Attaché for humanitarian and social Cooperation, and Pierre
Charpentier, the Consulate’s Technical Assistant at the Birzeit University
Faculty of Law, visited the Centre. Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, and Hamdi
Shaqqura, Deputy Director for Program Affairs, provided an overview of PCHR’s
activities, focusing especially on the topic of human rights education. During
the meeting, the participants discussed the current human rights situation in
the Gaza Strip and potential means of improving the situation of Palestinians
in Gaza.

 

Later in the afternoon, Raji Sourani
and Iyad Alami, Deputy Director for Administrative and Legal Affairs, met with
Boram Kim, Rule of Law, Justice and Human Rights Program Analyst with UNDP in
the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Ms. Kim introduced UNDP’s Project
“Supporting the Rule of Law and Access to Justice for the Palestinian
People” and posed questions regarding the current situation of the
Judiciary in the oPt in general and Gaza specifically, as well as PCHR’s legal
work. Mr. Sourani provided an overview of development of the Judiciary in the
Gaza Strip in the past years, focusing especially on the negative effects of
the internal Palestinian division on the independence of the Judiciary. While
PCHR does not accept the legitimacy of the court system in the Gaza Strip, the
Legal Unit nonetheless seeks out alternative ways to defend the rights of
clients, as Mr. Alami explained