PA: SECOND PALESTINIAN CONFERENCE AGAINST DEATH PENALTY HELD IN RAMALLAH

The Second Palestinian National Conference for the Abolition of the Death Penalty concluded in Ramallah, and recommended that Palestine's military be completely separated from its civil arm.
Conference delegates also suggested a suspension of the use of the death penalty until it can be totally eliminated from Palestinian law.
Executive Director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) Randa Siniora inaugurated the conference with a speech on behalf of the Palestinian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. She said that the coalition and the ICHR and were gravely concerned by death penalties issued by Palestinian military and civil courts.
While asserting that no criminals should escape punishment, Siniora called the death penalty contradictory to modern penal policy which recommended reform rather than putting an end to human life.
“Sixteen death penalties were issued in 2009 by Palestinian military courts, thirteen of which were in the Gaza Strip, and three in the West Bank. Although these penalties weren’t executed, because the Palestinian president didn’t approve them, the continuous issuance of such penalties represent violation of human rights, namely article sixteen of the International Convention for Civil and Political Rights,” Siniora explained.
ICHR's project on the death penalty is funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and facilitated by the British Consulate in Jerusalem. It aims at working towards the abolition of the death penalty in Palestine by reducing the number of offenses to which the death penalty applies in the laws used in the Palestinian Territory as well as the number of death penalty sentences issued.