Double jeopardy

Said Zeedani, director-general of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) talks to Al-Ahram Weekly about the challenges facing the organisation's work

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When the PICCR was established 30 September 1993 upon a presidential decree issued by Yasser Arafat there were high hopes the organisation would guarantee the protection of Palestinians from all violations. As Said Zeedani, director general of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR), told Dena Rashed, the office was set up "to follow up and ensure the different Palestinian laws, by-laws and regulations, and the work of various departments, agencies and institutions of the State of Palestine and the PLO meet the requirements for safeguarding human rights."

Despite the clear aims of the Commission, "we were faced with another challenge that makes our office a distinct one," Zeedani notes. "The establishment of the PICCR, before the inception of the Palestine National Authority (PNA) and after the signing of the Oslo declaration, was a clear commitment on our part to promoting democracy as a form of government," said Zeedani. However, the Commission was also created in respect to the Palestinian human and citizens rights violated extensively and brutally by the Israeli occupation authority before and during the years of the first Intifada (1987-1993).

"When the PICCR was established in 1993, we believed that the occupation was coming to an end, and therefore the organisation was aimed at receiving the complaints of citizens against the Palestinian Authority," Zeedani said. "However, most of the complaints are by citizens oppressed in a way or another by Israeli forces."

"We not only report and investigate violations by the Palestinian government but also that of Israeli forces against civilians," he said.

For the PICCR, grievances are the most important aspect of its work. The current team of the grievances investigations department consists of two lawyers, one in the West Bank and another in Gaza, and five field researchers, three in the West Bank and two in Gaza. "The cases reviewed ranged from the highly charged cases of torture, arbitrary arrest and detention without trial for political reasons, to the more mundane cases of discrimination in the work place and arbitrariness in administrative decisions," said Zeedani.

"On the other hand we study many of the prisoners complaints, but only those who we have access to in the Palestinian prisons," he added. "In this case we try to question the institution and secure the rights of the citizen that have been violated."

The PICCR produces legal reviews, special reports that consolidate and complement the organisation's annual report. "This annual report has developed into the definitive document on the state of citizens' rights, the rule of law, good governance, and the separation of powers in Palestine," Zeedani says. In periodic reports the organisation highlights all abuses of rights, including manslaughter, demolition of houses, restrictions on movement or the harassment of journalists, Zeedani points out.

Despite its strength as an organisation, there remain problems to be overcome to ensure transparency and the independence of the PICCR -- most important would be ending the Israeli occupation. "The measures imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities to restrict movement have led to complete separation between the main office in Ramallah and the branch office in Gaza, and made meetings between staff members from both offices, and also between commissioners from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, virtually impossible," he added. "Oftentimes our reports are confiscated by the Israeli forces."

Additionally, the PICCR continues to lack the legal enforcement power -- like many other ombudsman offices in the Arab world -- required to secure cooperation of all public and semi- public bodies.

Zeedani believes that for the PICCR to become more potent enabling legislation should be passed by a freely elected Palestinian Legislative Council, replacing the presidential decree, in addition to assigning public funding from the treasury. "It is difficult to maintain the independence and the effectiveness of the PICCR when the Palestinian Legislative Council still appoints its commissioners," he added.