On 15 and 16 October 2009, Mr. Sourani will
make an oral intervention at the 12th Special Session of the
Human Rights Council in Geneva. The session has been called to address
“The Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and
East Jerusalem”. The draft resolution submitted by the Palestinian
delegation contains three separate issues, focusing on Israel’s illegal
annexation of East Jerusalem, the findings and recommendations of the
Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report), and
Israel’s continuing illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. PCHR, and a
number of other Palestinian and international human rights
organizations, have already made a written submission to the Council,
urging its Members to act effectively to address the human rights
situation in the OPT. PCHR believe that the recommendations contained in
the Goldstone Report detail appropriate and necessary measures to ensure
accountability. In light of Israel’s unwillingness to effectively
investigate crimes committed over the course of the Gaza offensive (27
December 2008 – 18 January 2009) it is essential that recourse be had to
international judicial mechanisms. International justice is the only
option available to Palestinian victims of Israeli crimes, it is the
only mechanism where those accused of the most serious crimes –
including war crimes, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and
crimes against humanity – can be tried, prosecuted, and held to account.
PCHR stress that human rights, international law, and the rule of law
are essential components to a just and lasting peace.
In the afternoon of 14 October, Mr. Sourani
and a delegation from FIDH met with Mr. Louis Moreno-Ocamp, the
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The delegation was
composed of Raji Sourani, Antoine Bernard, FIDH Executive Director,
Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President, and Mariana Pena, FIDH Permanent
Representative to the International Criminal Court. The discussion
related to the preliminary analysis undertaken by the ICC Prosecutor
following the declaration accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction lodged by the
Palestinian Authority on 21 January. The meeting centred upon three main
axes to be considered by the Prosecutor, namely: the ICC jurisdiction
over the situation; the gravity of the crimes committed; and the
admissibility of the situation in the ICC system, i.e. the willingness
and capacity of national tribunals to conduct domestic proceedings for
crimes under ICC jurisdiction.
On 14 October, Mr. Sourani met with the
Palestinian Minister of Justice in Ramallah, Ali Khashan, to discuss the
human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and in
particular to address potential mechanisms of international
accountability. The meeting focused on the endorsement and
implementation of the Goldstone report, in light of the upcoming 12th
special session of the Human Rights Council.
On 11 and 12 October 2009, Mr. Raji Sourani,
Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), attended a
meeting of the International Commission of Jurist’s Executive Committee.
The International Commission of Jurists is an international organization
dedicated to the promotion and understanding of the rule of law, Mr.
Sourani is currently serving as a member of the Executive Committee.
