The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) established the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center –formerly known as the Quaker Service Information and Legal Aid Center – in 1974 in Jerusalem. Preliminary steps were taken in 1993, to transfer governance of the Center to a local body. By October 1997, the process was completed and the local Board of Trustees assumed full responsibility for the Center’s activities.In 2000, the center was registered as non profit, public interest law center by the Palestinian ministry of Interior under Number QR/146/B dated on 28/10/2000. Since 1974, the center passed through different stages, it can be summarized as follows: 1) 1974-1988: The focus of the center in this period was to support and defend individual victims of Israeli policy, mainly prisoners, through covering financial costs of lawyers. 2) 1989-1995: For the first time the center started to hire some lawyers, and to deal with new cases, as test cases, but still, prisoners were the major focus of work. 3) 1996-1999: As dramatic changes took place in the area after the signing of the different peace agreements, and the redeployment of the Israeli troops out of the cities and towns of the West Bank, the emphasis of the work of the Center changed. However, the local board and staff have affirmed that the political changes do not require a major alteration in the objectives of the Center, but rather encourage it to further prioritize its work. The major changes were reducing prisoners program, to deal with new developments emerged mainly from the changing political environment, new dimensions of the work were added, some of them to defend the victims of new developments, like by-pass roads, which was established on Palestinian farmer’s land. The Center started also to serve Palestinians living in areas controlled by Palestinian Authority, to promote respect for the rule of law and human rights for Palestinians living in the same area, but under different jurisdictions. During this period, by October 1997, governance of the center was transferred totally to a local body. 4) 1999- till now During summer 1999, and after eighteen months of the development, the Center underwent an evaluation of different aspects of its operations and program implementation, budgets and financial policies, structure, in addition to the role of the Board of Trustees, Director and staff. As a result all the internal, administrative and financial regulations were modified, including the by-laws. The Board took a decision to register the Center at the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, as a public interest law Center that promotes respect for human rights and the rule of law. It has been a respected Center among the local Palestinian community and human rights organizations. It will continue to address issues arising form the Israeli occupation, and will ensure that human rights will be respected under Palestinian Authority. Since the beginning of the second Intifada, and especially in 2002, the work of the center as a public interest law center was interrupted and affected badly due to two major factors: 1) The total collapse of the Palestinian Authority’s ability to enforce law. 2) The urgent needs that emerged after Israeli incursions from March 2002. During the last 9 months of 2002, about 15000 Palestinians were arrested in bad conditions and subjected to arbitrary violations. Movement of Palestinians is restricted since Israeli army created a personal permit regime to move from one area to another or to cross any of the 120 checkpoints that were erected in Palestinian territories