11/06/2013 Political Affairs and Democracy
Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), the rapporteur on the Palestinian National Council’s ‘Partnership for democracy’ with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has called on the relevant Palestinian authorities to “respect their agreement with PACE” and prevent any executions from taking place in Gaza.
Reacting to reports in the Palestinian media that the Hamas-run government in Gaza plans to execute a number of collaborators with Israel in an attempt to “eradicate collaboration this year”, Mr Kox said: “Maintaining the moratorium on the death penalty is one of the obligations Palestine took upon itself when signing the ‘Partnership for democracy’ with the Assembly. Any execution would be a violation of that partnership. I urgently call on the relevant Palestinian authorities to respect the agreement with PACE and prevent any executions from taking place.”
Mr Kox said he is due to return to the region later this year to evaluate the Partnership, which was signed in October 2011 by the President of the Palestinian National Council Salim Al-Za’noon and fully supported by President Abbas and all the Palestinian political factions.
No executions are carried out in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.