Ref: 78/2012

On Tuesday morning, 26 September 2012, the delegation of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) started meetings of IADL’s Executive Committee in the head office of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).  Mr. Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, is participating in these meetings in his capacity as Member of IADL’s Executive Committee.

PCHR received the delegation, which is comprised of 17 lawyers, who visit the Gaza Strip for the first time.  They will stay in the Gaza Strip until 29 September 2012.

This evening, the international delegation will started a number of intensive activities organized for its members by PCHR to allow them to know more about the current situation in the Gaza Strip.  These activities will begin with a meeting with representatives of human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip, which will be followed by a meeting with PCHR’s Board of Directors and a number of academics, human rights defenders, jurists and representatives of international, women and media organizations. 

In the upcoming days, the delegation will meet with government officials, international and relief organizations, professors and students of the faculties of law in Palestinian universities and representatives of political factions.  They will also participate in a seminar and a field tour. 

It is worth noting that this visit followed a decision by IADL to hold the meetings of Executive Committee for this year in the Gaza Strip, as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people and in protest against human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli Occupation Forces.

The IADL, which was founded in 1946, is a non-governmental organization that has a consultative status at the UN Economic, Social and Cultural Council and UNESCO.  IADL members include lawyers throughout the world and a number of national and regional associations and unions.  Its goals include, inter alia, ensuring cooperation among lawyers throughout the world in the field of democratic practice; encouraging respect for, and maintenance of international peace and security; promoting the independence of peoples and protesting any restrictions on such independence; defending human rights and democratic liberties; struggling for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession; defending peoples’ rights of development and equality.