13 September 2010 | Popular Struggle
The trial of Bil’in protest organizer, Abdallah Abu Rahmah will renew this Wednesday, after his conviction of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations was harshly criticized by the EU, the Spanish Parliament and human rights organizations.
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 What: Beginning of sentencing phase in … Continue reading
8 September 2010 | Popular Struggle
The Spanish Parliament followed the footsteps of the EU and the Desmond Tutu of the Elders, and joined the rising tide of international criticism over Abu Rahmah’s conviction of incitement by an Israeli military court.
The Spanish Parliament’s Intergroup for Palestine issued a statement that expressed their “deep concern that Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s potential incarceration aims at preventing him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the Wall in a non violent manner.” (full text of the statement is available below or here … Continue reading
20 September 2009
The “University Center of Ariel in Samaria” (AUCS) has been excluded from a prestigious university competition about sustainable architecture in Spain. With this move, Spain joins the growing number of European governments taking effective, even though preliminary, steps to uphold international law by boycotting or divesting from institutions and corporations involved in or profiting from Israel’s illegal Wall and colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian land..
“Ariel University Centre of Samaria” was one out of 21 teams selected last April to compete for the Solar Decathlon-Madrid 2010, the most prestigious competition for sustainable architecture in the … Continue reading
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
22 June 2009
Dear friends, comrades, partners in civil society, and national and international human rights organizations, thank you all for coming, and for joining us here today.
Today, the Gaza Strip lies in ruins. Five months after Israel’s criminal offensive, which cost the lives of 1,414 Palestinians – 83% of whom were civilians – and injured 5,300 others, recovery is impossible. The siege of the Gaza Strip, an illegal form of collective punishment imposed on Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants, has now been in place for over two continuous years. Individuals are denied their rights to … Continue reading
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
21 June 2009
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), in cooperation with Spanish civil society partners and national and international human rights organizations, are organizing two events in Madrid, Spain, on 22 and 24 June 2009. The events will take place in the Spanish Cultural Centre and the Spanish Congress.
These events are being organized in opposition to a proposed amendment to Spain’s universal jurisdiction legislation. On 19 May 2009, the Spanish Parliament requested that the government draft legislation limiting the scope of Spain’s universal jurisdiction legislation, this amendment will be presented to the Lower … Continue reading
30 May 2009
We write to you as Palestinians from Gaza to express our dismay at the proposal of the Spanish parliament to restrict the universal jurisdiction of Spain, particularly with regard to breaches of international humanitarian law. The proposal called for the existing legislation to be modified so that cases may only be pursued if they involve Spanish victims or if the accused is present on Spanish soil.
At approximately midnight on 22 July 2002, an Israeli Air Force fighter jet dropped a 2,000 lb bomb on the densely populated Daraj neighborhood of Gaza city. The main target of the attack … Continue reading
In support of Universal Jurisdiction
The social organizations, solidarity groups, development NGOs and human rights associations, as well as persons of the academic and legal sphere, listed below:
WE EXPRESS our opposition to the approval by the Spanish Congress of Deputies of the Resolution that limits the exercise of the universal penal jurisdiction by the Spanish courts and restricts their jurisdiction to the cases in which those presumed responsible are found in Spain or to the fact that there are victims of Spanish nationality.
WE RECALL, once again, that as a signatory of the Geneva Agreements of 1949 on Humanitarian International Law and … Continue reading
Ben Harding | Reuters
20 May 2009
Spanish judges who tried to extradite ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and investigate Bush administration officials over Guantanamo will likely be barred from doing so again after a parliamentary vote on Tuesday.
Under pressure from foreign governments, members of Spain’s congress almost unanimously passed a resolution which, if translated into law, would end the right of Spanish judges to investigate serious crimes like genocide anywhere in the world in cases where courts in the affected country do not act.
The resolution would restrict Spain, which had been praised by international campaigners, to only investigating cases in … Continue reading
20 May 2009
Spain’s congress on Tuesday reportedly passed a resolution to limit the jurisdiction of investigative judges.
The move follows pressure from foreign governments such as the US, China and Israel, which has strongly criticized Judge Fernando Andreu’s ongoing investigation into the 2002 assassination of Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh in Gaza, in which 14 others were also killed.
The resolution confines judges to cases with a clear Spanish connection and excludes them from probing investigations already under way in the country that allegedly committed the crime, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The move effectively reins in Spain’s … Continue reading
