Open Letter Concerning the Exclusion of Human Rights Lawyers from the Palestinian Bar Association, 17.5.2000.

to the Head of the Palestinian Bar Association, Abdelrahman Abu Nasr
Palestinian Minister of Justice, Freih Abu Middein
President Yasser Arafat

Your Excellencies,

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) is deeply concerned about information received on recent acts by the Acting Council of the Palestinian Bar Association.

According to our information, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), received a letter on 10 Mai, 2000, announcing that all their lawyers, including Mr Raji Sourani, Director of the PCHR and member of the EMHRN, had been removed from the Bar Association’s list of practising lawyers on the basis of a restrictive interpretation of the Palestinian Bar Association Law (article 7) which prohibits lawyers from the practice of law combined with the holding of public or private employment.

In total, 31 lawyers working with human rights in non-governmental organisations should have been removed from this list, depriving them of the right to appear before Palestinian courts and practise their profession.

In addition, we were informed that Mr. Khader Shkirat, Director of LAW and member of the EMHRN, was threatened by the Deputy Head of the Bar Council to stop his critique of the Bar. In a recent statement, the Head of the Palestinian Bar Association should have added that any director of an NGO should not be allowed to be a member of the Bar Association at the same time.

Human rights promotion and protection is crucial for the defence of the rule of law and democracy, as well as the building of a strong civil society, and lawyers’ contribution in this regard is decisive. Isolating human rights lawyers from the professional association must be considered with utmost concern and as a political act to the detriment of the human rights movement in Palestine.

Therefore, the EMHRN urges you to do your utmost to redress the situation and to ensure that the decision to enlist the above mentioned practising lawyers in the ‘non-practising’ lawyers register is withdrawn.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
Secretariat of the EMHRN
Studiestraede 38
DK-1455 Copenhagen K
Tel: +45 33 30 88 88
Fax:+45 33 30 88 00