GAZA: DEATH SENTENCE ISSUED DESPITE PALESTINE’S 2018 ACCESSION TO ICCPR SECOND OPTIONAL PROTOCOL

January 5, 2021:

The Northern Gaza Court of First Instance on 4 January 2021 issued a death sentence by hanging against F. N. (32), from Jabalia refugee camp, who was convicted of premeditated murder of his aunt, Ne’ma Fares al-Nemnem, on 12 December 2015.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), the death penalty contradicts with Palestine’s international legal obligations under the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Hence, PCHR reiterates its principle position in opposition to the death penalty.
This is the 1st sentence of its kind in 2021 in the Gaza Strip. It should be noted that 2020 witnessed an increase in the number of death sentences in the Gaza Strip, as 22 sentences were issued: 17 were issued by the Court of First Instance and 5 by the Court of Appeal upholding previous sentences. Thus, the total number of death sentences issued in Palestinian territory since 1994 reached 237: 30 in the West Bank and 207 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 149 sentences were issued after the 2007 Palestinian political division.
Since the establishment of the PA, 41 death sentences were executed: 39 in the Gaza Strip, and two in the West Bank. Of those executed in the Gaza Strip, 28 were carried out after 2007 without the ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of Palestinian law.