[PDF version of statement is here]

To mark the UNESCO International Day of Education, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights have today published its submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Ms. Francesca Albanese, on the deprivation of liberty of Palestinian university students. It was submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on 10 November 2022, following her call for submissions on deprivation of liberty pursuant to her forthcoming thematic report.

LPHR focused its submission on the issue of the systematic targeting of Palestinian university students by Israel’s military authorities for arrest and detention. The clear arbitrary nature of their military detention, and the multiple human rights violations which flow from i) the deprivation of liberty (which includes a complete block to their university education), ii) the lack of due process safeguards within the military detention and court system, and iii) the harshness of the detention condition, gives rise to serious concerns about the systematic use of deprivation of liberty against Palestinian university students in clear contravention of a range of norms under international human rights law.

LPHR has established the Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project – working closely with the Palestinian human rights organisation Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association – to counter the targeting of this specific category of Palestinians: young Palestinian university students who are being systematically subjected to a range of human rights violations by Israel’s military authorities due to exercising their basic and fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. There is clearly also a discriminatory component to this targeting, as only Palestinian students are subject to this unlawful treatment by Israel’s military authorities.

LPHR’s submission makes material reference to a substantive written opinion issued in May 2021 by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (‘UN WGAD’) following a complaint submission made by LPHR and Addameer in relation to the prolonged arbitrary military detention of three Palestinian female university students. The UN WGAD upheld the substance of our complaint in full.

LPHR’s submission also outlines our view that the practice and apparent policy of systematic targeting of Palestinian university students for engagement in fundamental human rights activities should be viewed as a direct extension of the more widely reported practice of Palestinian children being systematically maltreated in military detention.

LPHR accordingly encourages the UN Special Rapporteur, and other relevant actors, to consider focusing specific attention on the apparent systematic targeting of Palestinian children and young people for arbitrary military detention/deprivation of liberty. The UNESCO International Day of Education, which celebrates the role of education for peace and development, is an appropriate day to draw public attention to this serious and pervasive human rights issue.

Following the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s significant decision earlier this month that three young female Palestinian university students are being held under unlawful arbitrary detention by Israel’s military authorities, Sarah Champion MP – who is also Chair of the International Development Select Committee in the UK Parliament – submitted this written question to the UK government:

• To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of (a) the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s finding of 1 July 2021 that Israel is holding three female Palestinian university students in arbitrary detention and (b) the UN Working Group’s request that the Government of Israel remedy the situation without delay and that the appropriate remedy would be to release the students immediately.

Yesterday, a written response was provided by the UK Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, James Cleverly MP:

• We are aware of the findings by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Israel’s continued detention of Layan Kayed, Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ruba Asi. We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law.

The question and answer can be seen on Hansard here.

LPHR notes it is important that the UK government is aware of Layan’s, Elyaa’s and Ruba’s cases and of the UN’s recent comprehensive finding that they are being arbitrarily detained. It is also important that the UK government has called on Israel’s authorities to comply with their obligations under international law.

We urge Israel’s authorities to respect the considered decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UK government’s response; and accordingly immediately release Layan and Ruba (Elyaa was released in May after being detained for over ten months) and provide compensation, and other reparations, for the three Palestinian university students.

[PDF version of statement available here]

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer), strongly welcomes the published opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UN Working Group) which importantly finds that three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, Layan Kayed (23), Elyaa Abu Hijla (21) and Ruba Asi (21), are being arbitrarily detained by Israel’s military authorities.

The UN Working Group’s expert opinion provides full clarity that the criminalisation and wholly punitive treatment subjected to Layan, Elyaa and Ruba is unlawful, arbitrary, based on discriminatory grounds, and replete with human rights violations. Their ongoing maltreatment and punishment by Israel’s authorities must be condemned, and should end immediately.

The UN Working Group “requests the Government of Israel to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi without delay… [T]he appropriate remedy would be to release Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.” LPHR and Addameer urge governments and parliamentarians to follow-up on the UN Working Group’s urgent and critical recommendations.

We initiated the UN Working Group’s review after making a legal complaint last September, submitting that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba were each being arbitrarily detained by Israel’s military authorities. Their published written opinion provides a forensic analysis of material legal and human rights issues highlighted in our submission. In so doing, the Working Group finds their military detention to be arbitrary under four distinct categories (bolded by LPHR and Addameer for emphasis):

• ‘[T]he detention of Ms Kayed, Ms Abu Hijla and Ms Asi is arbitrary under category I as it lacks a legal basis.’

• ‘[T]he detention of Ms Kayed, Ms Abu Hijla and Ms Asi resulted from their legitimate exercise of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, as protected by articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and is therefore arbitrary, falling under category II.’

• ‘[T]he violations of the fair trial rights of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi are of such gravity as to render their detention arbitrary under category III.’

• ‘The Working Group concludes that Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi, all of whom are female students and all of whom are also Palestinian, have been detained on discriminatory grounds, namely because of their gender and their national, ethnic and social origin. The Working Group considers that they were also detained on the basis of their status as university students… [T]he Government has violated articles 2 (1) and 26 of the Covenant, and that the deprivation of liberty of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi is arbitrary under category V.’

The UN Working Group’s opinion details the gravity and range of the violations against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba, finding (bolded by LPHR and Addameer for emphasis):

• ‘All three arrests appear to have been carried out with a clear excess of force, as none of the women are reported to have put up any resistance but all were handcuffed and two (Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi) were also blindfolded’.

• ‘[I]t is disturbed by the manner in which the three female students were arrested and at the excessive force used by the authorities. Their subsequent treatment at the hands of the authorities, including the failure to remove handcuffs when eating, the imposed use of a toilet without a door for privacy and the failure to provide appropriate clothing, reveal a prima facie breach of the Bangkok Rules.’

• ‘[T]he treatment of the three female students clearly falls short of the obligations of Israel as a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The treatment also violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the Bangkok Rules [the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders]’.

• ‘[T]he presence of legal counsel during interrogations is an essential safeguard in ensuring that any admissions by an individual are given freely… [T]he failure to provide Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi with access to a lawyer from the moment of their detention violated their right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defence and to communicate with a lawyer of their choice.’

• ‘[T]he Working Group in its practice has consistently argued that the trial of civilians by military courts is in violation of the Covenant and customary international law and that, under international law, military tribunals can only be competent to try military personnel for military offences… [T]he Government could have explained why the three women students appeared before a military court but failed to do so.’

• ‘[T]he right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before a court is a self-standing human right, which is essential to preserve legality in a democratic society… There is nothing to indicate that any of the three women were presented before a judicial authority, as required by article 9 (3)–(4) of the Covenant. Moreover, the ordinary permissible period of delay for being brought before a judge of 48 hours was clearly violated in each individual case.’

• ‘[I]t is a well-established norm of international law that pretrial detention should be the exception and not the rule, and that it should be ordered for as short a time as possible….[T]he bail hearings for Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi did not take place and the Government has not explained why. In the absence of such an explanation, the Working Group cannot accept that the pretrial detention of these three women was properly constituted.’

• ‘The Working Group recalls that, under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity.‘

Underscoring the scale and range of the violations involved in the arbitrary detention of Layan, Elyaa and Ruba, the UN Working Group has notably decided to onward refer their cases to six other UN Special Rapporteurs, and a further UN Working Group:

• the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,

• the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association,

• the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,

• the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers,

• the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences,

• the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, and

• the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 for appropriate action.

Just prior to the publication of the UN Working Group’s Opinion, LPHR and Addameer released a statement notifying that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba had each received criminal convictions and varying excessive sentences by an Israeli military court, on the basis of having exercised their basic human rights by participating in and affiliating with a democratic student association at Birzeit University:

• Ms Layan Kayed (23-years-old) was sentenced to 16 months of imprisonment and fined 6,000 NIS (approximately $1,820) on 21 March 2021. Layan has now been in continuous military detention for over a year, following her arrest on 8 June 2020.

• Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla (21-years-old) was sentenced to 11 months of imprisonment on 23 December 2020 and fined 1,500 NIS (approximately $465). Elyaa was released on 10 May 2021, after over ten months in military detention since her arrest on 1 July 2020.

• Ms Ruba Asi (21-years-old) was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment and fined 3,000 NIS (approximately $925) on 3 May 2021. Ms Ruba Asi has now been in continuous military detention for close to a year, following her arrest on 9 July 2020.

LPHR and Addameer are in the process of relaying the UN Working Group’s opinion to Layan, Elyaa and Ruba: informing them that they have been recognised as being arbitrarily detained on four separate grounds, and that they are entitled to remedy under international law. We will continue to work on their cases and those of other Palestinian university students facing illegitimate targeting and punishment for exercising their basic human rights.

About Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

LPHR is a UK legal charity that works on key projects to protect and promote Palestinian human rights.

About Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)

Addameer is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.

Background Notes:

Guilty plea bargains were accepted by Layan, Elyaa and Ruba due to Israel’s military courts lacking basic fair trial rights, as clearly indicated by its conviction rate of over 99 per cent. LPHR and Addameer notes their trial dates were frequently postponed without the opportunity of a bail hearing; thereby increasing a further factor of arbitrariness into their military detention.

By way of background, each of the three female Birzeit University students were arrested within a month of each other, and subsequently charged with participating in and affiliating with a student association. From the beginning of the military occupation in June 1967 through to July 2019, Israel’s Defence Ministry has classified 411 organisations as “hostile,” “unlawful” or “terrorist” associations under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations (1945). Members of designated organisations can be criminally charged for their membership in or affiliation with the group. Among the organisations so classified are all major Palestinian political parties, including the ruling Fatah party. University student groups have also been so designated, despite their lawful nature.

In September 2020, LPHR and Addameer submitted a legal complaint to the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention on the Israeli military authorities ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention of Layan, Elyaa and Ruba.

The criminal convictions against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba are part of an intensifying pattern of the Israeli military authorities arbitrary detention of Palestinian university students for peaceful exercise of their basic human rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression. The use of arbitrary military detention and punishment appears purposeful to intimidate and deter other students from exercising their fundamental civil and political rights. It has the hallmarks of being intentional and strategic; indeed the methods used, and the volume of students they target, are accelerating.

LPHR and Addameer emphasise that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba have been criminalised and received varying excessive sentences for exercising fundamental freedoms guaranteed by international human rights law. They have not had prior engagement with Israel’s military authorities. The effect of these sentences, lengthy and in harsh prison settings, will have a major impact on these young female students. We are deeply concerned about their well-being.

LPHR and Addameer will continue to work on aiming to protect Palestinians university students from ongoing illegitimate targeting and punishment, which appears to be widespread, systematic and in clear violation of basic international human rights law protections. LPHR has established a Student Protection Project to consolidate our work and focus on this specific human rights issue, with more details to follow soon.

[PDF version of statement available here]

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) provide a significant update on the arbitrary military detention by Israel’s military authorities of three young female Palestinian Birzeit University students.

Layan, Elyaa and Ruba have each received criminal convictions and varying excessive sentences by an Israeli military court on the basis of having exercised their basic human rights by participating in and affiliating with a democratic student association at Birzeit University. They also received suspended sentences on each of their charges for a period of five years.

• Ms Layan Kayed (23-years-old) was sentenced to 16 months of imprisonment and fined 6,000 NIS (approximately $1,820) on 21 March 2021. Layan has now been in continuous military detention for over a year, following her arrest on 8 June 2020.

• Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla (21-years-old) was sentenced to 11 months of imprisonment on 23 December 2020 and fined 1,500 NIS (approximately $465). Elyaa was released on 10 May 2021, after over ten months in military detention since her arrest on 1 July 2020.

• Ms Ruba Asi (20-years-old) was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment and fined 3,000 NIS (approximately $925) on 3 May 2021. Ms Ruba Asi has now been in continuous military detention for close to a year, following her arrest on 9 July 2020.

Guilty plea bargains were accepted by Layan, Elyaa and Ruba due to Israel’s military courts lacking basic fair trial rights, as clearly indicated by its conviction rate of over 99 per cent. LPHR and Addameer notes their trial dates were frequently postponed without the opportunity of a bail hearing; thereby increasing a further factor of arbitrariness into their military detention.

By way of background, all three female Birzeit University students were arrested within a month of each other and subsequently charged with participating in and affiliating with a student association. From the beginning of the military occupation in June 1967 through to July 2019, Israel’s Defence Ministry has classified 411 organisations as “hostile,” “unlawful” or “terrorist” associations under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations (1945). Members of designated organisations can be criminally charged for their membership in or affiliation with the group. Among the organisations so classified are all major Palestinian political parties, including the ruling Fatah party. University student groups have also been so designated.

In September 2020, LPHR and Addameer submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention on the Israeli military authorities ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention of Layan, Elyaa and Ruba. A decision from the UN Working Group is imminent.

The criminal convictions against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba are part of an intensifying pattern of the Israeli military authorities arbitrary detention of Palestinian university students for peaceful exercise of their basic human rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression. The use of arbitrary military detention and punishment appears purposeful to intimidate and deter other students from exercising their fundamental civil and political rights.

LPHR and Addameer emphasise that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba have been criminalised and received varying excessive sentences for exercising fundamental freedoms guaranteed by international human rights law. They have not had engagement with Israel’s military authorities in the past. The effect of these sentences, lengthy and in harsh prison settings, will have a major impact on these young female students. We are deeply concerned about their well-being.

LPHR and Addameer will continue to work on aiming to protect Palestinians university students from ongoing illegitimate targeting and punishment, which appears to be widespread, systematic and in clear violation of basic international human rights law protections. LPHR has established a Student Protection Project to consolidate our work and focus on this specific human rights issue, with more details to follow soon.

About Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

LPHR is a UK legal charity that works on key projects to protect and promote Palestinian human rights.

About Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)

Addameer is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.

[PDF version available here]

On UNESCO’S International Day of Education that celebrates the role of education for peace and development, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) and Friends of Birzeit University (Fobzu) issue an urgent call to the international community to intervene in the ongoing systematic targeting of Palestinian university students for prolonged arbitrary military detention by Israel’s military authorities.

This punitive practice, in breach of international human rights law, has surged since August 2019, including a new disturbing pattern of increasingly targeting female Palestinian university students. This development was highlighted by LPHR and Addameer’s complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the Israeli military authorities’ ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention of three young female Palestinian Birzeit University students from the occupied West Bank: Ms Layan Kayed (23), Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla (21) and Ms Ruba Asi (20).

Layan, Elyaa and Ruba have been in continuous military detention since 8 June, 1 July and 9 July 2020 respectively, and have been identically charged with participation and affiliation of a democratic student association at Birzeit University. On 22 December 2020, Elyaa was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment. Layan and Ruba’s cases remain pending.

These three cases are emblematic of young Palestinian university students being systematically criminalised and held in prolonged military detention due to peacefully exercising their basic rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression. It is also necessary to recognise the severe short-to-long term impacts of punitive military detention on their right to education. This trend represents one of a number of ways in which the right to education for Palestinians is denied today.

What we ask for

On International Day of Education, LPHR, Addameer and Fobzu urge the international community to call for the immediate release of Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla, Ms Ruba Asi, and other Palestinian university students being detained for association with a university student group; call upon Israeli military authorities to cease arresting, detaining, and/or charging Palestinian university students for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression; call for the end of the inadmissible use of military courts to try civilians, including Palestinian university students; and call for an end to the wide range of violations of the right to education for Palestinians.

We will continue to closely monitor and work on protecting Palestinian university students from ongoing illegitimate targeting, harassment, humiliation and punishment, which is widespread, historic and systematic, and in clear violation of basic international human rights law protections.

About Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

LPHR is a lawyer-based legal charity in the UK that works on legal projects aimed at protecting and promoting Palestinian human rights.

About Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)

Addameer is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.

About Friends of Birzeit University (Fobzu)

Fobzu is a UK charity promoting Palestinian access to education since 1978.

[PDF version of statement available here]

[PDF version of statement available here]

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) have submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the Israeli military authorities ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention of three young female Palestinian Birzeit University students from the occupied West Bank: Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ms Ruba Asi, aged 23, 21 and 20 respectively. They have been in continuous military detention since 8 June, 1 July and 9 July 2020, and are awaiting trial after being charged with participation and affiliation with a democratic student political group at Birzeit University.

Criminalising female Palestinian university students under repressive Israeli military law that grossly infringes basic human rights

Layan, Elyaa and Ruba were arrested and detained within one month, indicating a disturbing pattern of specifically targeting female students from Birzeit University. Each of the three university students have no prior engagement with the law. They have been given identical criminal charges for: i) affiliation with an illegal group; ii) being present during an illegal gathering; and iii) allegations of stone throwing. Excessive and punitive military law orders have been used to underpin these charges.

The first two charges have been unjustly applied to the peaceful exercise of basic and fundamental human rights: participating in a democratic university student group. From the beginning of the military occupation in June 1967 through to July 2019, Israel’s Defence Ministry has classified 411 organisations as “hostile,” “unlawful” or “terrorist” associations under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations (1945).1 Members of designated organisations can be criminally charged for their membership in or affiliation with the group. Among the organisations so classified are all major Palestinian political parties, including the ruling Fatah party. University student groups have also been so designated.

This is the repressive context for the unjust imposition of criminal charges against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba for affiliating with a legitimate university student group and for being present at one of its meetings. They are being criminalised and held in prolonged pre-trial detention for peaceful exercise of their basic rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression.

The charge of stone-throwing, which carries a maximum ten-year sentence, appears to be based on third person confessions obtained under the coercion of military interrogation, rendering such evidence inherently unreliable and arguably inadmissible.

We ask that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention examines Layan, Elyaa and Ruba’s cases from a gendered perspective and/or possibly engages with the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls. We also provide a list of discrete human rights and due process issues raised by these cases for the UN body to investigate. They include:

• the use of terrifying night-time arrest raids on the family home;

• conditions of detention which appears to amount to degrading treatment in breach of the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law, and their compatibility with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Noncustodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules);

• interrogations without the essential safeguard of having the presence of a lawyer;

• charges which may be based on third person confessions obtained under duress of military interrogation and alleged breach of the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law;

• no bail hearings so that students are kept in continuous pre-trial detention for months following charge and awaiting trial;

• consequential adverse impact on tertiary education and career paths for detained students;

• substantial risk of psychological harm as young people being unjustly detained for a prolonged period and subjected to criminal prosecution; and

• grave inherent risk of being held in the close confines of detention within the context of an unprecedented global pandemic.

Context of intensifying systemic targeting of Palestinian university students by Israel’s military, including apparent emerging pattern of targeting female students

The arrest, military detention and criminal charges against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba fall within an intensifying pattern since August 2019 of the Israeli military authorities detention of Palestinian university students for peaceful exercise of their basic human rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression (please see here a public statement by Birzeit University).

Israel’s military authorities are acting in a manner which appears purposefully designed to intimidate other Palestinian university students from exercising their fundamental civil and political rights for fear of receiving similar wholly punitive treatment.

Our complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention follows only a few months after we submitted a complaint (on 21 May 2020) to the same body regarding the near six-month military administrative detention of another young female Palestinian student from Birzeit University, Ms Shatha Hasan. Shatha was detained on secret evidence without charge or trial after being arrested from her home in the middle of the night on 12 December 2019. Like Elyaa, Ruba and Layan, Shatha had not had any previous engagement with Israeli military custody.

LPHR and Addameer are alarmed at the indication of a pattern of systematic targeting of female Palestinian university students. We are closely monitoring this extremely troubling trend.

What we ask for

LPHR and Addameer have requested that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention intervene through urgent contact with the Government of Israel and urge that Ms Layan Kayed, Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla and Ms Ruba Asi are: i) immediately released from detention on bail; ii) their charges based on association with a university student group be immediately annulled given they involve a breach of international human rights law; and iii) immediately annul charges relating to stone-throwing if they are based on confession evidence from third persons obtained under the duress of military interrogations as such evidence is intrinsically unreliable.

We also request that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention publicly calls on Israeli military authorities to: i) cease arresting, detaining, and/or charging Palestinian university students for their peaceful exercise of their rights to free assembly, association and expression; ii) cease use of the Defence (Emergency) Regulations (1945); and iii) end the use of military courts to try civilians.

LPHR and Addameer will continue to closely monitor and work on protecting Palestinians university students from ongoing illegitimate targeting, harassment, humiliation and punishment which appears to be widespread, systematic and in clear violation of basic international human rights law protections.

About Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

LPHR is a lawyer-based legal charity in the United Kingdom that works on legal projects aimed at protecting and promoting Palestinian human rights.

About Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)

Addameer is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.