Ref: 153/2021
Date: 19 Dec 2021
Press release,
ICSPR calls on the Palestinian security services in the West Bank to stop the practice of political and arbitrary detention.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) follows with concern the continued implementation of political, arbitrary and illegal arrests campaigns of political opponents amid the deteriorating internal security situation in the West Bank and the growing and recurring cases of security chaos in several cities of the West Bank.
ICSPR condemns these practices in the strongest possible terms and considers that the practice of political and arbitrary detention, and the accompanying perpetration of the crime of torture, constitute a clear violation of the obligations of the National Authority under national law and the international conventions on human rights to which it has acceded. It also fears this to be a scheme that seeks to take us back to the square of political and arbitrary detention as a means of revenge and political terrorism. Accordingly:
- ICSPR calls on the Palestinian Public Prosecutor to work seriously to ensure the immediate release of all political detainees at the hands of the Palestinian security services in the West Bank.
- ICSPR calls on the Palestinian security services to stop practicing political reprisals, and to fully abide by the provisions of the national law, which granted the powers to arrest and restrict freedom only to judicial officers, who are subject to the supervision of the Public Prosecution.
- ICSPR calls on the local community, and in particular the parties and unions, to exert more efforts to pressure the Palestinian Authority to stop arbitrary and political arrest campaigns, and not to drag society back into the square of political and arbitrary detention.
ICSPR
