No: 1/2020

Date:  July 26, 2020

It is supervised by a board of trustees of leading professors of international law interested in Palestine.
Law for Palestine Organization announces its launch today

Law for Palestine announces its official launch today, July 26, 2020, as a registered non-profit organization in the United Kingdom, aiming at developing and training legal professionals interested in Palestine from all over the world and providing enrich and substantive Palestinian legal content.

The founder and president of the organization, Ihsan Adel, who is a PhD researcher in international development and international law at the Institute for Development Research and Policy at the University of Ruhr, Germany, said that the idea of the organization was born from the urgent need for a network that brings together, coordinates and trains in order to provide competent legal professionals able to deal with the Palestinian issue from the perspective of international law,  especially in the current time in which Palestine faces an unprecedented international legal battle, whether in light of the Palestine question in the International Criminal Court, or the issue of annexation plan, and the biggest question represented by the role of the international community and the United Nations system in the Palestinian issue and ending the occupation. Pointing out that the organization is currently based on nearly 30 volunteers and workers specialized in international law, international relations, and translation.

Adel indicated that the organization has a board of trustees made up of senior professors of international law and jurists who are interested in the Palestinian question from around the world, foremost among them, the South African Professor John Dugard, who has served as judge on the international court of justice and a former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in addition to, Dr. Mutaz Qafisheh, who’s an associate professor of international law and former dean, Hebron University College of Law and Political Science, Palestine, and former official at the United Nations Office in Palestine, Dr. Bassem Boshnaq is an associate professor of international law at the Islamic University and a legal advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Salah Abdel Ati, is a former director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights and the Masarat Center in the Gaza Strip, the president of the International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights, Dr. Alice Panepinto is a lecturer in law at Queen University Belfast, and Abeer Baker is a lawyer in the Israeli military courts and former chair of the Legal Clinic for Prisoners Rights in the Law Faculty of Haifa University, and Dr. Ammar Dwaik, is the Director General of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, and Dr. Muayad Hattab, is the former dean of the faculty of law at An-Najah National University and a legal consultant in London-UK, and Rawan Farhat who’s a researcher in international law and gender expert, she has worked for more than 10 years with several institutions including UN Women and the European Union.

The organization publishes a weekly report entitled (Palestine’s Legal Scene), which reviews the legal dynamics of the Palestine question, and everything related to international law and Palestine at the local, regional, international levels, and this includes publications, activities, and conferences related to Palestine. In addition to the judicial decisions, decrees, and orders that affect the Palestinian question. It also covers the Academic research and studies, and human rights events. Furthermore, these events are continuously documented on the organization’s website, as well as it is issued extensively and briefly in its weekly report.

The organization is also based on the “International Criminal Court & Palestine- Translation and Analysis” project
which works on collecting and translating all official materials related to the International Criminal Court and cause of Palestine, and providing them to readers in Arabic and English languages for free in order to remain as a reference for researchers and readers interested in the Palestinian question. This project also works to summarize these materials and present them as simplified documents to reach the widest range of those who are interested. Furthermore, it works to analyze data published in international research and studies centers regarding the International Criminal Court and Palestine, translate, summarize, and write full analyzes about it. The organization also broadcasts short videos and publishes position papers on this sensitive and important issue, to raise public awareness about it.

Bruna Perestrelo, the spokeswoman for “Law for Palestine”, said that the organization establishes through its work an information system that collects, translates and analyzes all the materials related to Palestine and international law continuously, as a reference for monitoring, documenting and archiving the latest human rights developments related to Palestine.Perestrella mentioned that the organization is also working on a project entitled “legal training for Palestine”, which aims to develop the capacities of young legal and international lawyers, to be able to deal with the question of Palestine in a highly professional manner and connecting with them. Perestrella added that, for this purpose, the organization provides training sessions, dialogues and workshops in the field of international humanitarian law, human rights, international criminal law, and the Israeli military order system, in addition to internship opportunities within the institution, with the aim of engaging them in work and identifying and reaching a close understanding about everything related to Palestine and international law, In addition to connecting them with active and partner institutions in this field.

Perestrelo pointed out that the organization’s website contains, at the moment of its launch today, 29 volumes of Palestine’s legal scene, documenting the legal dynamics and news of Palestine since the beginning of this year 2020, and that includes 374 news, events, and human rights release, in addition to translating Prosecution Response to the Observations of Amici Curiae into the Arabic language, which was issued by the Court’s Prosecutor at the end of April, and confirmed its position to support the court’s jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza), as well as several translated articles from research and study websites, dealing with issues related to Palestine and international law.

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