A/HRC/12/48 page 59 C. Relevant political and administrative structures in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank 210. The Palestinian Legislative Council is the legislature of the Palestinian Authority; a unicameral body with 132 members, elected from 16 electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. Its initial composition, whose normal cycle is four years, was 88 members. In accordance with the Oslo Accords, the first Palestinian elections took place in 1996 under the supervision of international monitors. In 2000, a second round of planned elections did not take place due to the flaring-up of the second intifada. In January 2006, the second general polls took place. The elections resulted in a majority for the List of Change and Reform.65 On 29 June, days after the capture of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli armed forces in the West Bank arrested eight Palestinian Government ministers and 26 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.66 The Council has been unable to operate since, as the continued detention of its members means it cannot achieve a quorum. 211. The Palestinian Basic Law was developed to function as a temporary constitution for the Palestinian Authority until the establishment of an independent State and a permanent constitution for Palestine can be drawn up. The Basic Law was passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1997 and ratified by the President of the Palestinian Authority in 2002. It has been amended twice: in 2003, the political system was changed to introduce a prime minister and, in 2005, it was amended to conform to the new Election Law.67 The legal system comprises a body of laws and decrees which include those remaining from previous centuries – Ottoman, British, Jordanian (in the West Bank), Egyptian (in the Gaza Strip) and Israeli – and legislation introduced by presidential decrees and laws passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council.68 212. In the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, the court system comprises Magistrate Courts, dealing with misdemeanours; Courts of First Instance, dealing with more serious crimes and appeals against judgements handed down by Magistrate Courts; Appeal Courts, which hear appeals against judgements of the Courts of First Instance; and the High Court, which provides the highest level of appeal. A Supreme Criminal Court was set up in 2006 to try crimes such as murder, abduction, rape, so-called honour crimes and attacks on national security. Military Courts hear cases involving members of the security forces and apply the 1979 PLO Revolutionary Code. The Attorney General and the prosecutors investigate and prosecute crimes, oversee the legality of detentions and investigate complaints by detainees. The Attorney General and the judges are nominated by the Higher Judicial Council, which is headed by the President of the High Court, but appointed by the Palestinian Authority’s President.69 Since June 2007, the Gaza authorities have restructured the judiciary in violation of Palestinian laws. To replace 65 The name of the list on which Hamas representatives ran for election. 66 See chap. XXI. 67 The Palestinian Basic Law: http://www.palestinianbasiclaw.org Amnesty International, “Occupied Palestinian Territories torn apart by factional strife”, available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE21/020/2007/en/dom-MDE210202007en.html. 68 69 Ibid.