June Director General of Palestine’s Oldest Human Rights Organisation to Speak at NUI Galway

The Great March of Return, Israel’s Assault on Gaza and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine

The Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway will host a timely and important talk by Shawan Jabarin, Director General of the largest and oldest Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, and will address the recent developments in Gaza, on Friday, 8 June.

Mr Jabarin’s talk will discuss the remarkable mass movement that emerged in the form of the Great March of Return, and the response of the Israeli military, including the use of lethal force and explosive bullets against civilians, as well as rules of engagement allowing the use of lethal force. Jabarin will also address the diverse range of ongoing attempts to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law in the Palestinian territories, from potential war crimes investigations by the International Criminal Court, to forthcoming proposed legislation in Ireland to ban trade with illegal settlements in occupied territories. 

Professor Ray Murphy from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, said: “Shawan Jabarin is amongst the most pre-eminent of Palestinian human rights defenders and most qualified to speak about the ongoing oppression and human rights violations of the Palestinian people.”

In 2011 Jabarin was appointed to the Human Rights Watch Middle East Advisory Board, and in 2013 he was elected as a Commissioner for the International Commission of Jurists. In 2016 he was elected Secretary-General of FIDH: International Federation of Human Rights.

After studying sociology at Birzeit University in the 1980s, Shawan Jabarin later studied human rights law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in NUI Galway, where he completed the LL.M programme in 2004-05, supported by a grant from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Irish Aid programme. In 2010, the Irish Centre for Human Rights presented Mr Jabarin with its first and only distinguished graduate award.

Shawan Jabarin has been subject to administrative detention without trial, travel bans and death threats for his work as a human rights defender, and has been supported in campaigns by Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, and others. He was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1990 for his defence of freedom of expression and human rights, and has received numerous other human rights awards since, both personally and on behalf of Al-Haq.

The talk is free and open to the public and will take place in the Seminar Room at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway on Friday, 8 June at 5pm.

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