Lecture: The right of peaceful assembly and its ties to democracy and human rights

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, in cooperation with the National Association for Democracy in Rafah, carried out a meeting titled “The right to peaceful assembly and its relation to the concepts of democracy and human rights”, within the project “Strengthening tolerance and entrepreneurship” funded by the Atlas Network, in the presence of a number of young people of both sexes and of different specialisations from the Rafah governorate.

The meeting was opened by lawyer Bilal al-Najjar, welcoming the audience and introducing Pal-Think, its activities, and the aims it seeks to achieve; he likewise introduced the National Association and the principal programmes within which it works — affirming that this meeting comes within the continuing cooperation between the two institutions with the aim of strengthening young people's capacities in the field of democracy and human rights.

Al-Najjar spoke about human rights — their definition, characteristics, principles, and divisions — then set out the relation binding human rights to the right of peaceful assembly.

Al-Najjar then spoke about the concepts of democracy, its purpose and its forms, the principal problems that may beset its practice, and the laws that have affirmed this principle, entrenched in Palestinian legislation and in international human-rights law.

Added to that, he spoke of the nature of the right to peaceful assembly, the procedures of organising it, and the legal framework governing this right.

The meeting was interspersed with a number of questions and inquiries, discussed and answered by the meeting's trainer.