Launching the Activities of the Constitutional Building in Palestine and Beyond Conference
On Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017, and under the patronage of his Excellency the Prime Minister, Professor Rami Hamdallah, the Faculty of Law at An-Najah with the EU support launched the activities of the Constitutional Building in Palestine and Beyond Conference.
The conference was over two days from May 3rd - May 4th, 2017 and took place at the Prince Turkey Ben Abdul Aziz Theatre in the New Campus.
On the first day, the conference sessions shed light on the topics of drafting constitutions and the separation of powers.
On the second day, the sessions mainly tackled constitutional justice and issues that appear even in perfect constitutions.
At the beginning of the conference, Dr. Ayman Hattab, Dean of the Faculty of Law talked about the conference's importance as it allows for a space for dialogue to exchange experiences among law specialists.
In the opening speech, Prof. Maher Natsheh, Acting President of An-Najah welcomed the guests and commended the EU role in supporting Palestinian universities through developing academic programmes such as the criminal law programme at An-Najah and Al-Quds University and the economic law programme at Birzeit University. He added that the university aims at developing the faculty performance and producing competent graduates with qualities matching the labour market’s needs.
He also thanked his Excellency, the Prime Minister, for his consistent efforts for preserving judicial independence in Palestine.
Dr. Mohammad Haj Qassem, President of the Constitutional Court in Palestine stressed the importance of preserving the basic law and the separation of powers in Palestine and mentioned that constitution building requires theoretical and practical constitutional studies. He also commended the law faculties in Palestine for offering competent teams in different law fields and suggested establishing a higher academic program at An-Najah on constitutional law and political sciences.
In turn, Mr. Thomas Nicklason, Representative of the EU stressed the importance of the collaboration between the EU and the Palestinian universities and mentioned that the EU projects aim at improving academic programmes in Palestinian universities. He added that the EU offers support to Palestinian higher education institutions in terms of teams and infrastructure.
In his speech, Prof. Hamdallah conveyed the greetings of President Mahmoud Abbas to the conference organizers and participants and referred to the collective hunger strike Palestinian prisoners have recently launched in the Israeli prisons.
He then talked about the government’s attempts to collaborate with international law institutions to diminish the Israelis' violent practices against the Palestinian people and to protect the Palestinian community through the implementation of the internal law.
Notes:
The conference was also attended by Dr. Khereyah Rassas, Advisor to the Prime Minister; Dr. Ahmed Brak, Attorney General; Judge Emad Saleem, Chairman of the High Judicial Council; General Manager Akram Rujoub, Governor of Nablus; Judge Eyad Taim, Head of the Audit and Administrative Control Bureau and Dr. Kamal Ibrahim, Head of Fatwa and Legislation Office as well as a number of An-Najah’s Board of Trustees members, Palestinian businessmen, ministries and other notable guests and attendees.
