Human Rights Watch urges the Palestinian Authority to:
* Release all detainees currently being held without charge or trial, unless recognizable criminal charges are brought against them and they are provided with prompt and fair trials;
* Ensure accountability by:
condemning publicly and at a high-level acts of torture, illegal detention and other abusive practices when committed by the PA security forces.
conducting prompt, thorough and impartial, investigations into credible allegations of human rights violations. The findings of such investigations should be made public.
providing training to all security or law-enforcement agents in international human rights standards and in domestic law by which they will be held accountable for deviations from these standards. These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. The latter prohibits the use of force except "when strictly necessary to the extent required for the performance of their duty."
* Protect the rights of persons in custody or facing charges by:
requiring authorities promptly to I) inform suspects of the reasons for their arrest and their rights while in custody, and II) bring them before a judge or release them. Authorities should ensure that relatives of persons taken into custody are promptly informed of the detainees' whereabouts and judicial status, and that the detainee receives prompt access to legal counsel.
halting prosecutions before state security courts unless procedures are brought into line with international due process standards; providing new trials that conform with international fair trial standards to all those convicted in unfair trials before the state security courts; and ensuring that all trials, whether in reformed state security courts or the ordinary courts, conform with international fair trial standards.
continuing to permit the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Palestinian prisons and detention centers, and allowing independent human rights organizations also to monitor conditions and treatment of all detainees on a regular basis.
ensuring that judicial decisions are respected and enforced by security forces and public authorities.
suppressing the legal sanctions and security force conduct that chills political debate and dissent in Palestinian society, including the pattern of harassment and intimidation of human rights workers, journalists, members of the opposition and others engaged in peacefully questioning or challenging the conduct or policies of the PA or its leaders.
Human Rights Watch urges the government of Israel to:
* Comply with the provision of the Oslo accords requiring both principal parties to ensure respect for human rights, not only by ensuring that Israeli forces respect human rights, but also by urging the PA to conform to human rights standards, especially with regard to persons taken into custody. As a partner of the PA in the Oslo accords, and as an occupying power with continuing overall responsibility for security in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the government of Israel should modify its public stance that the PA must prevent anti-Israeli violence through whatever means necessary, without regard to the rights of Palestinians.
Human Rights Watch urges the government of the United States, as the preeminent international advocate of the Israeli-PLO peace process, to:
* Continue its public engagement on human rights with the PA with respect to intimidation of human rights critics and suspicious deaths in detention, while making the engagement more principled by extending it to include the rights of persons suspected of involvement in movements openly critical of the Israeli-PLO peace process;
* Insist that the PA respect human rights even when the policies in question are being pursued in the name of preventing anti-Israeli violence.
Human Rights Watch urges the European Union (EU), as the largest single provider of aid to the PA and the chief source of outside funds for the budget of the Palestinian police, to:
* Use the influence that comes with its financial assistance to urge, publicly and consistently, that the PA address human rights abuses, including, among other things, by establishing a policy of encouraging public complaints, investigating of allegations, and punishing abusers;
* Maintain the linkage between human rights and the EU-PA interim Association Agreement, articulated by EU representatives in talks with President Arafat on February 25, 1997 in Brussels, by insuring thatviolations of "human rights and democratic principles," as set forth in Article 2, are considered material breaches of the EU-PA agreement.