Ref: 46/2011

The
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) welcomes Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to cancel lenient sentences against persons committing
crimes for “maintaining family honor.” PCHR hopes that this decision will contribute
in detering these crimes. Persons
committing these crimes benefited from the impunity granted to them by the law
as they were subject to lenient sentences. Such impunity resulted in the escalation of such crimes in the
Palestinian society over the past decades and has opened the door undermining
the rule of law. PCHR also hopes, in view
of the Palestinian reconciliation, that the Palestinian Legislative Council
(PLC) will resume its activities and will develop a unified Palestinian penal
code that conforms to the spirit and essence of the Palestinian Basic Law and
to international human rights standards in order to guarantee public rights and
freedoms. 

On
15 May 2011, President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decision to annul Article 340,
Chapter I, Section VIII of the Jordanian Penal Code no.16/1960, which is
applicable in the West Bank. The same
decision also requires amending Article 18 of the Egyptian Penal Code no.74/1936,
which is applicable in the Gaza Strip, by adding “this does not include
crimes of killing women to ’maintain family honor’ to the end of the
Article. 

This
decision was made in response to the
increasing number of murders committed to “maintain family honor” in
the oPt, including the recent murder of Aya Ibrahim Baradeyeh, 21, from Sourif
village, northwest of Hebron in the south of the West Bank. The Palestinian police found Baradeyeh’s body
in a water well in the village on 07 May 2011. Baradeyeh had disappeared on 20 April 2011. According to media
statements made by the Chief of the Palestinian police in Hebron, Colonel
Ramadan Awad, Baradeyeh’s 37 year old uncle confessed that he kidnapped
Baradeyeh with three of his friends and killed her in order to maintain the
families honor.

It
should be noted that Article 340 of the Penal Code no. 16/1960 which applies in the West Bank allows
for mitigation of strict judgments, defined in Article 96 of the same Code, when
the person is accused of committing crimes to “maintain family
honor.” Article 18 of the Penal Code no. 74/1936 which is applicable in
the Gaza Strip makes it permissible to accept mitigation in crimes committed to
“maintain family honor.”

PCHR welcomes
President Abbas’s decision to cancel lenient sentences against persons
committing crimes to “maintain family honor” and:

1. Stresses that according to Article 43 of the 2003 Amended Basic
Law, in cases of necessity that cannot be delayed and when the PLC does not
convene, the President of the National Authority has the right to issue
decisions that have the power of laws. Such decrees need to be presented to the
Legislative Council in the first session convened after their issuance;
otherwise, they shall cease to have the power of law. President Abbas’ decision addressed this
issue in Article 4. 

2. The main justification for the establishment of the PLC was not to
fill any legal vacuum in the OPT which suffered from a huge heritage of laws;
rather, the main justification for the establishment of the PLC was to unify
these laws and develop a unified law for PNA. The PLC has taken reasonable steps towards the unification of laws, but
it still needs to take further steps in order to unify all the applicable
laws. It should be noted that some of
the laws applicable in the West Bank are different from relevant laws
applicable in the Gaza Strip. 

3. Hopes that, in view of the recent Palestinian reconciliation, the
PLC will resume its activities and will develop a unified Palestinian penal
code that conforms to the spirit and essence of the Palestinian Basic Law and
to international human rights standards in order to guarantee public rights and
freedoms. 

4. Stresses that it is necessary that all decisions that have been
issued by President Abbas, and legislations issued by the Change and Reform
Bloc since 2007, be considered by the PLC.