Home > > Tagged: universal jurisdiction

Action Alert: Tell your MP that war criminals should be prosecuted not welcomed!

Posted on: November 4, 2010

4 November 2010 | Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Yesterday, the Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated the government’s commitment to urgently resolve the “unacceptable situation” with regard to universal jurisdiction during his visit to Israel.

The coalition government want to change the current legislation to give the Director of Public Prosecutions power over issuing arrest warrants against alleged international criminals who visit the UK

The change will make it easier for war criminals to escape justice – please take two minutes to email your MP and ask them to sign EDM 108 and make public their opposition to any change … Continue reading


Updated on November 5, 2010
Posted under: Press Releases
Tags: , , ,

Abdallah Abu Rahmah: No army, no prison and no wall can stop us

Posted on: January 6, 2010
Abdallah Abu Rahmah: No army, no prison and no wall can stop us

Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah

January 6, 2010

To all our friends,

I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope.

I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel′s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle … Continue reading


Updated on January 13, 2010
Posted under: Press Releases
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Defense of universal jurisdiction speech presented to conference in Madrid

Posted on: June 23, 2009

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


Updated on April 22, 2011
Posted under: Press Releases
Tags: , , ,

PCHR and Spanish civil society organize conferences in Madrid In defense of universal jurisdiction

Posted on: June 22, 2009

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


Updated on April 22, 2011
Posted under: Press Releases
Tags: , , ,

Open letter from Gaza to the government and people of Spain

Posted on: June 2, 2009

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


Updated on June 2, 2009
Posted under: Features, Press Releases
Tags: , , , ,

Spanish organizations oppose a resolution that could end Spain’s universal jurisdiction

Posted on: June 2, 2009

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


Updated on June 2, 2009
Posted under: Press Releases
Tags: , ,

Spain signals end to war crimes, genocide hunting

Posted on: June 2, 2009

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


Updated on June 2, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
Tags: , , ,

Spain to limit judges’ jurisdiction; includes probe against Israelis

Posted on: June 2, 2009

The Jerusalem Post

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


Updated on June 2, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
Tags: , , ,