A Palestinian was elected as the chairman of the International Federation for Human Rights during the 39th annual conference held in Johannesburg, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.

Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, said in an emailed press statement that Sha'wan Jabarin, a prominent Palestinian right activist, was elected as the chairman of the federation.

"The Palestinian people and the state of Palestine are proud of this historic victory. The Palestinians have always played a role in defending human rights and confronting the Israeli violations of their rights," said Erekat.

Jabarin is a rights activist from the West Bank and he is the chairman of the Palestinian rights group called al-Haq (the right) for human rights. He was elected as the federation's deputy chairman in the conference held in Turkey in 2013.

"Electing Jabarin as the chairman of the federation is the practical response by all the international rights associations and establishments, members of the federation, to the Israeli campaigns against his organization al-Haq," said Erekat.

In recent weeks, Israel waged a campaign against Jabarin and his rights group which had a significant role in documenting the Israeli violations during its large-scale military offensive waged on the Gaza Strip for 50 days in 2014.

"Documenting all these violations against the Palestinian people by Palestinian rights groups aims at suing the (Israeli) occupation and its war criminals before the international courts of crimes," said Erekat.

The annual conference of the international federation for human rights was held on Aug. 22 for six days. At least 400 world rights activists representing 193 human rights organizations coming from 122 countries participated in the conference.

Source : XINHUA