Raji Sourani (; born 31 December 1953 in

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

) is a

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

lawyer, the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and a former member of the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

. He was an

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

in 1985 and 1988, member of

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...

EXCO and IDAL EXCO, and Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights. He was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1991, given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy. In 1995, he founded the

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR, ) is a Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City. It was founded in 1995 by Raji Sourani, who is its director. It was established by a group of Palestinian lawyers and human rights a ...

and is its director. Sourani was active in the cases of

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

representing deportation, and in monitoring the conditions of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i prisons and detentions. He remains an unreserved critic of

human rights violations Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...

occurring on both sides of the conflict. Sourani was selected for the 2003 Oak Institute for Human Rights Fellowship at

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner ...

Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. A college town, the city is home to Colby College, a New England Small College Athletic Conference, NESCAC college, and Thomas College. As ...

. He was denied a permit to exit Gaza to attend a human rights conference in September 2008. Sourani was co-awarded the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob vo ...

on September 26, 2013 for "his unwavering dedication to the rule of law and human rights under exceptionally difficult circumstances". Sourani served "a three-year sentence 979-1982imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the

, a designated terrorist organization by Israel. He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012. Sourani was imprisoned an additional three times, in 1985 and 1986, and held in administrative detention in 1988. Sourani was named a ''Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International'' during his 1988 detention. During the Israeli detention Sourani was beaten and subjected to mental and physical torture. Since the signing of the Declaration of Principles by the Government of Israel and the PLO in 1993, and the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule, he has advocated strict adherence to international standards for the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. In his and principled stance, he has won respect and recognition by international organizations for his work. As leader of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Sourani organized the first mission of human rights observers after the overthrow of

Muammar al-Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by Libyan rebel forces in 2011. He came to power ...

in Libya in 2011 and trained lawyers and human rights advocates in Syria. In 2014 he said that had been in the ranks of the

. In October 2023, at the onset of the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, Sourani was living with his family in the

Tel al-Hawa Tel al-Hawa (, "Hill of the Wind") is a neighborhood in the southern part of the Palestinian city of Gaza. Incorporated by the Palestinian National Authority in the late 1990s, Tel al-Hawa is one of the more affluent areas of the city. It c ...

district of Gaza City. Shortly after he had given an interview to ''Democracy Now!'''s

Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupatio ...

, on October 22 Israel blew up his two-storey home with a bomb, He believes he was targeted and, while insisting on staying, was persuaded by others to exit the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

to protect his life. From his 65 colleagues from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, two young lawyers were killed. Sourani eventually managed to flee to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he assessed the role and limits of the international justice system to affect the war devastating Gaza. In November 2024 Raji Sourani was - with

Richard Falk Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930) is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the autho ...

, Ahmet Köroğlu, Hilal Elver, Lara Elborno, Penny Green, Wesam Ahmad, Craig Mokhiber - a member of the Gaza Tribunal steering committee, a people's tribunal established in London as an independent initiative with humanitarian and moral objectives to investigate Israel's war crimes in Gaza.Gaza Tribunal
2025

References

External links

Speak Truth To Power Defender
by Kerry Kennedy, 5 May 2002
Special Report – A Matter of Principle: Gaza Human Rights Lawyer Raji Sourani
by Janet McMahon,

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs The ''Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'' (also known as ''The Washington Report'' and WRMEA) is an American foreign policy magazine that focuses on the Middle East and U.S. policy in the region.Interview Raji Sourani - Vidéo Dailymotion
FIDH Interview with Raji Sourani, 9 January 2009
Lawyers accuse British Israelis of Gaza war crimes
submission on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the British-based Public Interest Law Centre, 8 April 2025 Human rights in the Gaza Strip 20th-century Palestinian lawyers People from the Gaza Strip 1954 births Living people Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Israel Palestinian people imprisoned by Israel Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award laureates 21st-century Palestinian lawyers {{not a typo, jp:ラージー・アッ＝スーラーニー