explain why a number of proceedings before this court resulted in judgments declining jurisdiction. First Instance Courts are courts of general jurisdiction, which have the power to try individuals for felonies and crimes that do not fall within the jurisdiction of a higher or specialized court, or a misdemeanour court. Theft was by far the most common offence tried before First Instance Courts in the West Bank (37,5% of all cases). Forgery cases were the second most recurring type of case (9,5%), followed by selling expired food (9%). After the dissolution of the Serious Crimes Court, during the monitoring period, First Instance Courts in the West Bank also dealt with crimes which fell within the jurisdiction of that Chart 2 - Charges before West Bank First Court, such as Instance Courts Treason/Comm murder (3,3% of all unication with Other Forgery cases), attempted the enemy Murder murder (7,8%), Selling expired narcotics-related food False testimony crimes (7,8%), rape Rape/Sexual and sexual assault assault Narcotics(6%), and related crimes collaboration with Causing bodily harm the enemy, including land sale or rental (2%). Other crimes Attempted murder included causing bodily harm, false testimony and Theft arson, among others. 2. Number of defendants and their gender According to official court data, in the reporting period Serious Crimes Court and First Instance Courts in the West Bank tried 3,065 individuals. 1,379 defendants were tried before the Serious Crimes Court branches and 1,686 defendants before First Instance Courts. Courts in Ramallah had by far the largest number of defendants (36% of all defendants tried by the Serious Crimes Court and 38% of defendants tried by First Instance Courts). Hebron and Nablus also tried a substantive number of defendants. Women represented a small percentage of all defendants before both first instance Courts (less than 3%) and Serious Crimes Court branches (less than 2%). 15