Ref: 83/2013
On 09 December 2013, Raji Sourani,
Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), concluded his 8-day
visit to Sweden. Sourani headed to
Sweden to receive the Right Livelihood Award that is known as “Alternative
Nobel Prize” in an official ceremony that was held on 02 December 2013 in the
Swedish Parliament in Stockholm.
Before receiving the Award, Sourani
participated in a business lunch that hosted the Right Livelihood Award winners
for 2013, President of the Swedish Parliament and heads of different committees
and parties. During the ceremony that was attended by public figures of the
political and social Swedish community, statesmen, lawyers and parties’
leaders, the president and founder of the Right Livelihood Award spoke about
the Award’s philosophy and introduced the 4 winners who were selected out of
dozens of candidates, stressing that the Alternative Nobel Prize was founded to
recognize the efforts done by these persons throughout their lives to serve
causes of their countries and peoples.
In his speech, Sourani stressed that the
Award is not for him or for PCHR, rather it is for the whole Palestinian cause
that goes through the worst conditions ever. He added that Award is for the
Palestinian prisoners, deportees, homeless persons whose houses were destroyed,
victims killed or extra-judicially executed by Israeli forces, the Gaza Strip’s
population who experiences a cruel and illegal closure and the West Bank’s population
whose lands are confiscated for the purpose of settlement expansion. In
addition, Sourani said it is shame on the international community to keep
silent against the widespread injustice experienced by the Palestinian
civilians who are protected under the international law and international
humanitarian law. It is also shameful that the only concern for the
Palestinians in the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords is the
right to life, the freedom of movement, the right to an adequate standard of
living and the problems of sewage. Nobody nowadays talks about the right to
independence and self-determination as if the occupation and its consequences,
including the closure, destruction and death, are the fate of the Palestinians
and their coming generations. Sourani emphasized that the Palestinians will neither
forgive nor forget the Israeli practices and violations against them and they
will continue their legal struggle through the international humanitarian and
human rights laws that give the struggle a fourth dimension and reveal the
Palestinians’ moral superiority over the occupation.
During the visit, Sourani participated in
a number of activities and met with many Swedish officials. On 03 December
2013, in Uppsala, he met with the Patriarch of the Evangelical Church who is
the most prominent religious figure in Sweden. They addressed the latest
updates on the level of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory
(oPt), as the Patriarch showed great sympathy with the Palestinian civilians
and their cause.
On the same day and in Uppsala University,
which is one of the greatest Swedish universities, Sourani met with a number of
professors and students from the faculty of Law and Political Sciences. On 04
December 2013, Sourani had a meeting with the director of Development
Foundation and director of the Middle East Department. He also met with the director
of Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation that is one of the most eminent feminist
foundations that has good partnership and cooperation with PCHR for a long
time. Furthermore, Sourani delivered a lecture before a gathering of the
foundation’s employees about the situation in Palestine.
Moreover, Sourani met with the
Secretary-General and the leadership of the Olof Palme International Center. In
Scala Theater, Sourani met with representatives from the committees that are in
solidarity with the Palestinian people, representatives from Swedish
community-based organizations and activists supporting the Palestinian cause.
He also met with a number of Diplomats at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs who are specialized in the Middle East and Palestinian issues. He then
met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Additionally, Sourani met with the
executive committee of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and addressed
the catastrophic deterioration of human rights situation in the oPt.
In the last days of the visit, Sourani
participated in a seminar held by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation in
cooperation with Kvinna till Kvinna foundation, Olof Palme International Center
and the Social Democratic Party. Agneta Johansson and a member of the executive
committee of the Social Democratic Party participated in the seminar also.
Sourani tackled the conditions of human rights in the oPt, pointing to the
illegal closure imposed on the Gaza Strip for years. He explained that the
closure is a form of collective punishment and is a crime and a disgrace on the
conscience of the international community. Sourani also spoke about the Israeli
policies adopted in Jerusalem such as settlement activities, efforts to create a
Jewish demographic majority there and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population
and other practices of the Israeli forces in the West Bank, including
settlement expansion, arbitrary detentions and house raids.
Sourani met with Thomas Hamburg, member
of the European Council and a prominent Swedish politician. In the meeting,
they talked about the human rights situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank
and the latest developments in this regard. Sourani invited Hamburg to visit
the oPt.
It should be noted that Sourani’s visit
was widely covered by the Swedish media that had meetings with him and offered a
special opportunity to cover developments of the human rights situation in the
oPt.
