I am writing to urge you to place an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority and to consider abolishing the use of the death penalty altogether.
I am writing to urge you to place an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority and to consider abolishing the use of the death penalty altogether.
It was with grave concern that I learned that you may soon ratify and implement the death penalty for up to fifteen of the prisoners currently sitting on death row, particularly as we believe that most, if not all, were not afforded a fair trial or an opportunity to appeal. According to our information there are at least twenty-seven people on death row under the Palestinian Authority.
Human Rights Watch is also deeply concerned with the complete lack of transparency and information regarding the status of these prisoners and the cases against them. We call on the Palestinian Authority to provide the public accurate information about the individuals who have been sentenced to death, the crimes for which they have been convicted, the manner in which they were charged, sentenced and tried, the prisons in which they are being held, and details of their impending executions.
Human Rights Watch appreciates your efforts to restore law and order in the areas under your control; however, we believe that the best way to do this is by establishing a fair and independent judiciary and providing due process before the law to all those alleged of wrongdoing. These moves will go a long way to provide the protection and security that Palestinians are seeking and signal your commitment to the application of universal human rights norms.
Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of its cruel and inhumane nature. The cornerstone of human rights is respect for the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person. These principles cannot be reconciled with the death penalty, a form of punishment that is unique in its barbarity and finality.
There is a growing global consensus that use of the death penalty denies the most basic human right – the fundamental right to life – and should therefore be abolished. This is reflected in the reports of the UN Human Rights Committee and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The death penalty has effectively been abolished in the European Union (as called for in Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) and abolition is a condition of membership for new members of the EU. Furthermore, the abolition of the death penalty is called for in the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which there are already 54 state parties.
Historically, the Palestinian Authority has carried out executions in cases where the defendants were clearly denied their right to a fair trial and their right to appeal. On August 30, 1998, according to Amnesty International, the Palestinian Authority executed Ra'ed and Muhammad Abu Sultan, after a summary and unfair trial before a special military court, only three days after Palestinian security services charged them with committing two killings. On January 13, 2001, also according to Amnesty International, the Palestinian Authority executed 'Alan Bani 'Odeh and Majdi Makawi by firing squad in Gaza after summary and unfair trials before the Higher State Security Court.
International human rights standards stipulate that where the death penalty has not been abolished, it be imposed only in cases where due process has been scrupulously applied, including the right of the defendant to competent defense counsel, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and to appeal both the factual and legal aspects of the case to a higher tribunal.
According to information from local human rights groups, the Palestinians currently sitting on death row were sentenced under the government headed by your predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Many of them were tried in military or state security courts in trials which international and local human rights organizations judged to be grossly unfair and did not afford the defendants with any meaningful way to defend themselves. These trials are often summary, lasting just minutes or hours and sometimes carried out in the middle of the night; the defendants are tried on the basis of their confessions rather than forensic and other evidence; the defendants often have little or no access to legal counsel of their choosing; and some defendants have claimed that their confessions were obtained under duress or torture (such as the case of Fawzi Mohammed Mahmoud Sawalha documented by Human Rights Watch in a letter to President Arafat in 1997). Furthermore, defendants have no right to appeal the decisions of these courts. It is imperative that Palestinians tried under these courts be removed from death row and granted new trials that comport with international standards.
Article 6, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that, "in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes." However, according to local human rights organizations, the Palestinian Penal Code allows for the death penalty in the cases of seventeen offenses in the West Bank and fifteen in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Palestinian Authority has imposed the death penalty under the PLO Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979, which allows for sentences of death for forty-two different offenses. As long as the death penalty is still applied in the areas under your control, I urge you to limit the offenses for which it is applied to only the most severe crimes.
I thank you for your attention and look forward to your immediate action on this issue.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah Leah Whitson
Executive Director, Middle East North Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
