Ref: 41/2021

Date: 08 August 2021

On Thursday, 05 August 2021, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded a training course on “Capacity Building for Community Organizations to Fulfill Child Rights.” The training course was attended by 40 female and male participants representing 30 child rights organizations in the Gaza Strip, divided into two groups (20 trainees/group). The 60-hour training course was held over the course of 3 weeks from 11 July 2021 to 05 August 2021.

This training comes within PCHR project “Strengthen child participation, child rights monitoring, reporting and accountability to child rights,” funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in partnership with Save the Children and in coordination with community organizations.

This training aims to raise awareness among civil society organizations’ staff working with children on national and international conventions pertaining to child rights, and to enhance CSO’s role in monitoring, documenting, and reporting violations against children. The training also intends to impower CSOs to expose child rights violations, lead on data collection and accountability. Additionally, the training focused on building trainees’ capacity on working with and influencing governmental decision-makers at both the national and international levels, through standardized frameworks for enabling children rights and promoting inclusive and democratic CSO practices.

The training program was divided into three main components:

1. Introductory training on the international human rights law; international conventions signed by the State of Palestine; mechanisms for monitoring and documenting human rights violations; violence against children and the national strategy to reduce it; empowering children in community participation, leadership, and accountability; and international and domestic protection for children.
2. Theoretical and practical training on communication skills, i.e. speaking and dealing with children; debating and advocacy for child rights issues; and how to prepare, write and lead initiatives.
3. United Nations human rights mechanisms; preparing and writing international reports strategies; how to prepare and write official international reports and shadow reports; submission and follow-up on individual complaints.

In conclusion of the course, PCHR organized a closing ceremony, where Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, emphasized that this training enhances cooperation and networking between PCHR and child rights organizations. He added, through this course, PCHR seeks to share knowledge and expertise with all participants, in order to build their capacities on child rights, advocacy issues, community involvement and the preparation of international reports to accomplish their tasks and achieve their goals efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, he called upon participants to transfer their knowledge to their institutions and relatives, in order to create a community that supports the rights of Palestinian children. Also, he expressed his hope that the training course may contribute to improving the reality of child rights in Palestinian society.

For their part, the trainees confirmed that the course was characterized with its rich topics that they were introduced to for the first time, especially how to prepare and write international reports pertaining to child rights, which will enable them to take part in the preparation of national and parallel reports. The trainees also praised the trainers’ efficiency and various interactive training methods.