Ref: 38/2020 Date: 18 August 2020 

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded five training courses under the HAYA Joint Programme “Awareness-Raising and Capacity Building for Educational Institutions’ Staff to Eliminate Violence against Women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

These training courses were conducted in cooperation with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to train UNRWA school teachers across the Gaza Strip. Each course (twenty-five training hours) was held over the course of five days; 122 teachers and educational counselors received training, including 80 women (65.5% participation).

PCHR started these training courses on 23 February 2020, but the activities were interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic that affected all sectors, including the education sector. PCHR resumed the trainings on 05 August 2020 with full consideration of health and protection standards for participants and trainers.

This training course is a part of a project conducted in partnership between PCHR and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) through the HAYA Joint Programme, funded by the Government of Canada.  The project aims to develop the knowledge and skills of teachers to contribute to decreasing violence against women, particularly gender-based violence, based on an updated educational methodology promoting human rights.

The training program addresses several topics that meet the needs of the participants and promote the concepts of human rights, particularly women’s rights as stipulated in international conventions and gender-based violence issues.  The topics covered in the training program include the following: the concepts, forms, causes, and means to address gender-based violence; the legal intervention and protection mechanisms for women who are victims of violence; Palestinian legislations and their role in protecting women; national intervention program for the victims of violence; and the role of teachers in limiting the phenomenon of violence.

In conclusion of each training course, PCHR organized a closing ceremony, where ‘Abdul Halim Abu Samrah, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, praised the collaborative relations and joint cooperation between PCHR and UNRWA’s education sector.  He added that during the past few years, PCHR conducted dozens of training courses for teachers to provide them with knowledge on human rights in order to contribute to a generation fully aware of their rights and freedoms.

Mona al-Shawa, Head of PCHR’s Women’s Rights Unit and Project Manager, stressed the importance of this training for teachers and school counselors because they play a major role in disseminating the culture of combating violence against women and girls among students and their parents. This will enable us to build a generation that believes in the principles of justice and gender equality and combats all forms of violence against women in Palestinian society.

Mr. Khaled Abu Safiyah, UNRWA Human Rights Monitor, praised the training program and its contribution to raising awareness and capacity building of educational institutions’ staff in working to provide a safe, stimulating and enriching learning environment by reducing school violence which falls under gender-based violence.

Abu Safiyah emphasized the importance and qualitative knowledge the training offered teachers and counselors.

The participants affirmed that the course covered a variety of relevant topics, and the trainers efficient, varied and interactive training methods used in the course shed light on several important topics, all of which served to enhance and develop their professional skills.

At the end of the ceremony, all participants in the training course were awarded certificates for successfully completed the training program.