Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Addameer — the word means conscience — was established in 1991 by a group of activists working on human rights, and describes itself as a Palestinian non-governmental civil institution supporting Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. That last phrase is doing deliberate work: the organisation’s remit has always covered detention by the Palestinian Authority as well as by the occupation, which is why its figures are cited by parties who disagree about almost everything else.

The archive is a by-product of four programmes, and understanding them tells you what kind of evidence you are getting. The Legal Aid Unit provides free representation to Palestinian detainees and their families and works precedent-setting cases on torture and fair trial. The Documentation and Research Unit is the one researchers use: it documents violations against detainees and monitors their conditions through regular prison visits, and collects the detailed statistics and case information that underpin the organisation’s annual and thematic publications. The Advocacy and Lobbying Unit publishes statements and urgent appeals, briefs delegations and media, and submits reports and individual complaints to the United Nations. The Training and Awareness Unit trains Palestinian lawyers in the law and procedure of the Israeli military courts.

The practical value of that structure is that the statistics have provenance. Addameer’s detainee numbers — the standing figures on the total prisoner population, administrative detainees, child detainees and women — are compiled from prison visits and case files rather than aggregated from press reports, which is why they function as the reference figures in the field. The thematic fact sheets on administrative detention and on the military court system are the clearest short explanations available in English of how the system actually operates.

One important practical note: the organisation’s long-standing addameer.org domain has ceased to resolve, and its site is now served from addameer.ps. Older citations and links across the literature point at the dead domain. If an Addameer reference will not load, substitute the .ps host before concluding the document is gone.

Sources

• Our Work — Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
• Addameer — home