Randa Siniora, Palestine ICHR
November 2008: The last year was the worst on record for human rights since the start of the Palestinian Authority, says the Executive Director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights.
Randa Siniora took up the position of Executive Director with the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights in 2007, bringing with her 20 years of experience as a human rights defender and a specialist on the rights of women.
She was previously Director of the Ramallah-based human rights NGO, Al-Haq, and Head of Advocacy at the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling.
She is currently on the boards of the International Service for Human Rights and the Palestinian Counselling Center and is a member of the APF Senior Executive Officer Network.
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We work in a very complex and difficult situation. We deal with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and with the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip. Both have been critical of our work. So we always have to underline, time and again, the fact that we are independent.
As a national institution, we see our role as monitoring the human rights situation, documenting the violations, intervening, reporting and trying to stop those violations.
It is not relevant to us who the perpetrator is – the rights of the victims of human rights violations should be protected.
Worst year on record
The last year was one of the worst on record for human rights since the start of the Palestinian Authority. We received 2007 complaints but usually that number would not exceed 800 or 850.
Cases of torture, execution style killings especially in the Gaza Strip, suppression of basic freedoms, such as peaceful assembly, expression of your own opinion and suppression of the media – all these problems have increased tremendously.
However, because we are documenting and reporting on all these violations, irrespective of the perpetrator, the Palestinian people are seeing our independence and that builds trust in the Commission.
We have been taking many steps to reach out to the community through open days, workshops meetings and the media to build awareness and encourage people to bring their complaints to us.
We are also seeing much more progress by the different ministries and the security agencies to respond to our interventions and the concerns we raise. We are heard more seriously than other human rights groups because they increasingly recognise our unique position as a national human rights institution.
Similarly, we have had problems at some times with access to prisons and detention centres. But I can say now that we have no problem – and that change has come from demonstrating our independence to the authorities. In Gaza, for instance, we can now visit any time, without arrangements and without pre-warning.
Campaigning for change
Torture and the death penalty are two issues where the Commission has been running ongoing campaigns.
However, a new criminal law is currently being drafted which includes 21 acts where the death penalty is imposed. And so far during 2008 we have had five rulings by the military courts where the death penalty was imposed – three in the West Bank and two in the Gaza Strip.
So we are working in an environment which is very unfriendly to the idea of abolishing the death penalty.
But we recognise to make progress, at the level of legislation and also changing the way people think, it will be a long-term process.
Challenges
There are many challenges and obstacles we face on a daily basis to protect people’s human rights. But I am not pessimistic. I always think that there’s a possibility we can take the steps to bring about change.
If we lose hope, we can’t continue to be human rights activists and defenders and we lose all reason for what we do. We may not see big successes but we do see small successes all the time.
We have been able to help a number of victims of human rights violations, we are getting more positive responses from the Palestinian Authority, we see that they recognise us as a national institution and, for the first time, we also see them supporting us financially.
APF support
We have a lot to share but we also have many areas where we can learn from the experiences of other national human rights institutions in the APF: complaint handling, holding inquiries and education and awareness programs. So the APF is a valuable resource for us.
I also think the APF could be of great assistance to us with the ICC accreditation. We have 15 years of good work behind us and, if you look at the Paris Principles, it is clear that in many ways we are really meeting them. In practice, however, we have a very big problem. Our commissioners are self appointed, they are not appointed according to law and according to clear criteria.
The Commission needs to be involved with the international human rights community, so we can bring our concerns to the attention of international fora. For that to happen we need to seek accreditation with ICC and I think the APF could help us greatly in that process.
The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights is an Associate member of the APF.
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