Ref: 42/2015
Date: 09 July 2015
Time: 11:35 GMT

The security services of the Interior Ministry in Gaza continue to impose arbitrary restrictions on the formation and activities of various types of associations. The intervention affected all the work fields of the associations, including its structure and agenda. These steps are taken aside from the unity government although more than one year has passed on the formation of this government, which does not practice its duties in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented a number of cases regarding the arbitrary intervention in the associations’ affairs since the beginning of this year in the Gaza Strip. These cases are related and consistent with a long series of restrictions imposed on the associations since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and increased in light of the Palestinian division. The latest case documented by PCHR was the blatant intervention by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza against Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) when the aforementioned association conducted an internal administrative process, which included restructuring.

According to a complaint filed by a number of workers in the association to the Ministry of Interior, the General Directorate of Public Affairs and Non-Governmental Organizations in Gaza decided to “form a committee to consider the complaints and evaluate the integrity of the methodology, through which the restructuring process was conducted, and the integrity of measures taken to maintain grades of the employees.”

PCHR stresses that this decision constitutes a blatant intervention into the associations’ affairs and the judiciary is the competent authority to deal with such issues for those who wish to appeal an administrative decision.

PCHR also emphasizes that the Ministry of Interior does not have the powers regarding such practice, which clearly violates the Palestinian law. Moreover, the Interior Ministry’s measures exceeded its powers even under the amendments previously made by the government in Gaza to the Executive Bill of the Law of Associations, which was criticized and challenged by PCHR at that time.

The decision is undoubtedly a clear violation of the international standards, which call for the independence of the associations and their right to privacy and manage their affairs without any interventions especially from the Ministry of Interior.

This is also ensured by the third paragraph of article 46 of the 2003 Associations’ Law as it states that “No official body has the right to intervene in the association’s meetings, elections, or activities or to influence it”

Moreover, the Associations’ Law does not give the Ministry of Interior the power to monitor the associations’ work, but the competent ministry, whose specialty is the main activity of the association, is the entity authorized to monitor the associations within certain limits that do not detract from their independence as stipulated in Article (6) of the aforementioned law and ensured by the Executive Bill especially Articles (7) and (9).

It should be mentioned that the former Gaza government used the laws to offer a legal cover-up for the violations practiced on the ground. The most prominent of these violations was the former Gaza Council of Ministers’ decision no. (229) in 2011 regarding the amendment made to the Executive Bill of the Associations’ Law. This amendment gives the Ministry of Interior a power that is almost the same power of the competent ministry, so the authority in Gaza misused it to impose restrictions on the associations.

It should be mentioned that on 07 June 2012, PCHR filed a petition at the Supreme Court in Gaza, with its constitutional capacity, to cancel this amendment, which violates the rule of law principle and separation of powers. However, the court unjustifiably decided its lack of jurisdiction.

PCHR closely follows up all the measures taken by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza and emphasizes the following:

1. The civil society cannot perform its assigned role without enjoying its rights to existence, independence and privacy.
2. All laws and decisions issued under the division are unconstitutional.

PCHR believes that the civil society’s freedom is a prerequisite for building a proper democracy, and:

1. Calls upon the General Directorate of Public Affairs and Non-Governmental Organizations in the Gaza Strip to abolish the decision issued to form a committee to follow up the decisions made by GCMHP’s board of directors and those affected must head to the judiciary, which is the competent body authorized to solve such work problems and not the Ministry of Interior.
2. Calls upon the Ministry of Interior to stop intervening in the associations’ affairs and abide by the law and international standards of the right to freedom of associations.
3. Calls upon the civil society to raise the joint work to the highest levels to stand against the continued attempts by the PA in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to undermine the civil society and marginalize its role.
4. Demands the abolishment of all decisions and laws related to associations issued under the division.
5. Stresses the importance of engaging the civil society organizations in any laws or decisions issued to regulate them and their work.