Thursday, 1 June
7:00 pm
Het Goudblommeke in papier/La Fleur en Papier Dore
Cellebroersstraat/Rue des Alexiens 55
Brussels, Belgium
Facebook: https://facebook.com/events/103230590247108/
In what promises to be a truly engaging event, Charlotte Kates, the International Coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and Alexis Deswaef, layer and President of La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, will address the topic of the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, the hunger strike and prisoners’ protests and international response to the movement in relation to international law and human rights.
On 17 April 2017, some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners announced the start of an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions of their detention. Classified by Israel as “security prisoners”, Palestinian detainees are subject to a wide range of human rights violations from the moment of arrest, through interrogation and remand detention, to trial and imprisonment. These practices are part and parcel to the 50-year long prolonged occupation and must be addressed in the pursuit of long-term peace and reconciliation.
This is reflected in the demands of the hunger strikers which include the call to end torture and ill-treatment, the use of administrative detention, unfair trials, the detention of children, demeaning detention conditions including sleep and food deprivation, insufficient medical care, solitary confinement and the denial of the right to education.
The strike was suspended on 27 May 2017 after an agreement; further details remain forthcoming.
An open Q&A and discussion will follow the presentation. The Café Palestine team looks forward to seeing you at La Fleur en Papier Doré / Het Goudblommeke in Papier on Thursday, 1st of June at 19:00.
The events at “Het Goudblommeke in Papier” are organized with the support of vzw Geert van Bruaene.
More about our speakers:
// Charlotte Kates is the International Coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and coordinates the International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild. She is an Organizing Committee member of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. She is a longtime activist for social justice and Palestinian rights.
// Alexis Deswaef is a layer and current President of La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme. He is a co-founder of the law firm of the Quartier des Libertés, committed to ensuring justice for all. Thanks to his continuing involvement in international humanitarian law, he won in 2007 the International Competition of Advocacy for Human Rights in Caen (France), denouncing the detention of undocumented children in detention centres. He has been involved in striving for refugees and migrants’ rights for more than 20 years.
