Lawyers' Training Courses
Representing detainees and prisoners
May-June 2015
Adalah organized a fiveweek training course for 24 Arab lawyers (14 men and 10 women) on “Representing Detainees and Prisoners: Arrests, Investigations, and Remedies.” The course featured lectures by legal academics and human rights practitioners, delivered over 10 sessions. Topics discussed in the course included secret arrests and the denial of lawyers’ visits, legal and medical aspects of challenging torture and unlawful interrogation methods, police violence and interrogations of detainees, and treatment and rehabilitation of victims of torture. The course received highly positive feedback from the participants on the quality of the material and the topics covered, with many expressing desirability for similar courses in the near future. Representatives of Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, The Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Addameer and others led training sessions. Program | Photos 1, 2, 3
Representing Detainees and Prisoners: Arrest, Investigation and Remedies
May-June 2014
Adalah held a 10-session professional training course for 25 lawyers (14 women and 11 men) over five days on the legal representation of detainees and prisoners. The course, which was held at Beit Hagefen: The Arab Jewish Cultural Center in Haifa, featured lectures by lawyers, legal academics, and human rights practitioners on a range of subjects. Topics included: the international human rights law of torture and access to remedies; the constitutionalization of criminal cases; the legal representation of “security suspects,” including interrogation, gag orders, and the ban on meeting with lawyers; the representation of child “security suspects” in Israeli courts and military courts; and others. See the Program | Photos.
The participants gave highly positive feedback on the course, the quality of the material, and the topics covered. One participant noted that: “hearing lectures given by professionals in criminal law was enlightening, especially on a practical level. It gave me tools to deal with prisoners and/or detainees and with arrest conditions.” Another participant noted that: “the course did not just add to my legal knowledge, it also was enriching from a political and humanitarian perspective.”
Lawyers' Training Course on Representing Detainees & Interrogation Procedures
September-October 2013
In 9/13 and 10/13, Adalah held a 10-session training course for 30 lawyers on Representing Detainees and Detention Procedures in Umm al-Fahem. It included lectures delivered by lawyers, legal academics, and human rights practitioners on various topics including: the rights of suspects during search and interrogation and the admissibility of evidence; ban on meeting with lawyers and legal representation of security detainees; representation of minors in the detention process; use of torture and unlawful interrogation methods: legal and medical aspects; representation of detained protesters in Israeli courts and military courts; defending the rights of detainees and prisoners classified as security prisoners; representing administrative detainees and prisoners on hunger strike; defending the right to protest.
Lawyers training on home demolitions
June 2013
In 6/13, Adalah held a two-session training course for 20 Arab lawyers in the Naqab to legally challenge home demolitions and other issues related to land and planning. The training aimed to equip practicing lawyers with further legal knowledge and strategies to confront judicial and administrative home demolition orders before Israeli courts.
"Representing Detainees during Arrest and Investigation"
May and June 2012, Youth Center, 12 Herzl St., Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva)
Adalah held hold a professional training course for lawyers in Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) on the subject of "Representing Detainees during Arrest and Investigation." The training was designed for lawyers, primarily from the south, who were willing to volunteer to represent detainees arrested for participating in demonstrations to protect human rights. The training course aimed to provide lawyers with practical tools and information on Israeli and international law. It included 10 sessions held over 5 days with lectures delivered by lawyers, legal academics, and human rights practitioners on the following topics: defending the right to protest, preventing detainees from meeting with lawyers, representing detainees suspected of security offenses, use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and its prevention from both legal and medical perspectives, and arrests of demonstrators under civil and military law.
“Land Settlement in the Naqab”
Mandel Institute, Beer el-Sabe, September/October 2011
In 9/11 and 10/11, Adalah hosted a six‐week professional training course for lawyers working on land settlement issues in the Naqab. The course brought 10‐20 practicing attorneys to the Mandel Institute, in Beer el‐Sabe, where they were provided with historical and practical tools related to land settlement in the Naqab, to better prepare them to address land settlement cases. Each session was led by a leading attorney or expert and addressed a different element of land settlement in the Naqab. Topics included a comparative global perspective on indigenous rights, a history of land in the Naqab, and techniques for preparing evidence for settlement cases.
“Representing Detainees in Detention and Investigation Procedures”
Jerusalem, March/April 2011
In 03/11 and 04/11, Adalah held a four‐day, 10‐session training course for 30 lawyers in Jerusalem, entitled "Representing Detainees in Detention and Investigation Procedures" as part of our EU-funded torture project. The course provided practicing lawyers with greater knowledge of Israeli criminal law and international human rights law for their use in criminal and "security cases".
The course emphasized practical aspects of legal representation from arrest to interrogation and indictment and discussed topics including detainees’ due process rights; challenging the prohibition on meetings with lawyers and gag orders in ‘security cases’; coerced confessions, medical treatment, torture and ill‐treatment; and representing minors. Each session was conducted by leading lawyers and experts, and course materials consisting of caselaw, sample motions, and useful articles were distributed.
Participants gave highly positive feedback to the course. For example, one lawyer from Jerusalem emphasized that: “The subject was important, especially given the Occupation and the current political situation. The course was very interesting and enriching, and even exceeded my expectations. I was very happy to participate and would like to participate in similar trainings and activities [in the future].” Some of the lawyers who participated in the course have agreed to work with Adalah to provide pro bono representation to detainees, where needed.
“Representing Detainees and Detention Procedures”
November 2009
In 11/09, Adalah held a training course for 30 lawyers on Representing Detainees and Detention Procedures. The course provided practical and theoretical training and met for five weekly sessions. Each 4-hour session included two workshops and tackled subjects including: representation of political protestors; detention until the end of trial; legal means of tackling torture against detainees; the effect of torture and isolation on the detainee and attempts to get Israel to ratify the CAT Optional Protocol; and detention procedures in security cases. Several of the Arab and Jewish Israeli lawyers who attended the training work in human rights organizations. In addition to Adalah’s staff attorneys, leading defense lawyers gave lectures and led workshops, including Attorney Avigdor Feldman (private senior attorney), Prof. Kenneth Mann (founder of the Public Defender's Office in Israel), Attorney Banna Shoughry-Badarne (PCATI), and Dr. Ze’ev Weiner and Ms. Anat Litvin (PHR-I). There was also a special session on cross-examination.
