Ref: 26/2011

On Thursday, 05
May 2011, the Palestine Bar Association organized a ceremony to honor the
lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
(PCHR), for his election as the President of the Board of Trustees of the Arab
Organization for Human Rights (AOHR). The ceremony was attended by judges, counselors, lawyers, prosecutors and
figures of the Palestinian civil society.

Mr. Salama Bseiso,
Vice President of the Palestine Bar Association, delivered a speech, in which
he appreciated PCHR’s efforts to achieve justice for Palestinian victims of
human rights violations. Bseiso
considered electing Sourani as the President of AOHR’s Board of Trustees a
great achievement for Palestine, Palestinian lawyers and PCHR. He discussed the most prominent turning
points in Sourani’s life as a lawyer and human rights defender.

Additionally,
Bseiso addressed the legal work, which has been achieved, at the level of
documenting the war crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces against
the Palestinian civilians during the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza
Strip. He drew attention to PCHR’s
distinguished work at the legal level and at the level of receiving fact-finding
missions and facilitating their work via providing them with all necessary data
and statistics.

For Sourani, he
highly appreciated the role played by the Palestine Bar Association throughout
the past years under an unmerciful Israeli occupation. He tackled the most prominent national stands
of the Bar that included the strike carried out in the beginning of the first Intifada
and the Bar’s refusal to be as a legal shield for the Israeli occupation and
its crimes. Therefore, the Bar has been
motivating the struggle of Palestinian civilians to help them achieve their
legal rights, which are ensured under the international standards and
conventions.

Sourani also addressed
the establishment of AOHR and its efforts aimed at protecting and promoting
human rights in the Arab World. He
stressed that his election is an honor to the Palestinian human rights movement
and PCHR. Sourani confirmed that PCHR
and he would go on working for the promotion of human rights and prosecution of
the Israeli was criminals in cooperation with hundreds of lawyers around the
world.

In his speech
as well, Sourani addressed the Palestinian reconciliation, which took place to
end a black period in the Palestinian history, stressing on the importance of
this historic moment through which the Palestinian people pass after the
availability of responsible will and awareness of all its national powers to
make the Palestinian reconciliation come true. He spoke about the current reality and its challenges, particularly, at
the level of the rule of law, as he called upon Palestinian judges and counselors
to conjugate efforts in order to establish a unified and independent judiciary,
which can ensure the rule of law.

It should be
noted that at the end of the ceremony, Sourani was awarded a Certificate of
Merit and a souvenir emblem on behalf of the Palestine Bar Association, in
presence of Dr. Riyad al-Za’noun, President of PCHR’s Board of Directors.