Israel has been cited by the International Commission of Jurists for violating the civil rights of eight Palestinian attorneys who were held in administrative detention last year.
The charge was contained in a report by the Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, which the Geneva-based Commission of Jurists set up to promote an independent judiciary and legal profession all over the world.
In releasing the report to a U.N. subcommission on human rights, the Center called on the United Nations to monitor the protection of practicing lawyers in various countries.
The report said “the administrative detention of Palestinian lawyers at a time when over 18,000 Palestinians were arrested and detained in a 12 month period is a cause for great concern.”
It noted that the Israeli authorities brought no specific charges of illegal activity against these lawyers nor did they disclose any evidence against them.
The lawyers, from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, were engaged in a “strike against the military court system in Gaza and legal defense work on behalf of Palestinians accused of security offenses,” the report said.
Reed Brody, director of the Center, stressed that the protection of human rights requires that lawyers be free to take all cases, even unpopular ones, without fear of reprisal.
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