Ref: 37/2023
Date: 26 June 2023
On Sunday, 25 June 2023, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded a training course on the foundations of democracy and free elections, targeting 33 male and female children from the General Assembly of Palestine’s Children Council – Gaza Strip that is under PCHR’s supervision. The 10-hour course was held from 24-25 June 2023 over the course of two consecutive days.
The training course comes under the project “Strengthening the Role of CSOs to Fulfill Children’s Rights,” which is a collaboration between PCHR and Save the Children in coordination with 45 CBOs and is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
The training course included several topics relevant to democracy and the electoral process, the foundations of democracy, the concept of the right to vote, participation, pluralism, devolution of power, respect for opinions, and an introduction to the electoral process- candidacy, campaigning, and polling. A session was dedicated to discussing the internal regulations of the Palestine’s Children Council while a moot session was organized to imitate the elections. The training program included many recreational psychological debriefing activities.
The training course is part of the preparations by PCHR and the secretariat of the Palestine’s Children Council in the Gaza Strip to hold the second elections (2023-2025) to elect the local councils for children in the five governorates, and to elect the secretariat of the Palestine’s Children Council in the Gaza Strip, whose term lasts for two years according to the Council’s statute, noting that the term of the current council ends on 15 August.
The children expressed how happy they were to take part in this project, stressing that they have learnt new topics, and that the course was characterized by its rich topics and its contribution to raising their awareness of democracy and free elections. The children also praised the trainers’ competence and the various and interactive training methods as well as the recreational activities used in managing the training courses, emphasizing the importance of expanding children’s participation to involve them in making decisions of their concern, since they are the most competent to express their rights and issues.