Ref: 56/2021
Date: 03 November 2021
On Thursday, 31 October 2021, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded five training courses through the HAYA Joint Programme entitled “Awareness-Raising and Capacity Building for Educational Institutions’ Staff to Eliminate Violence against Women in the Gaza Strip’s Governorates.” These training courses were conducted in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to train teachers working in UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip.
The five training courses were conducted between 23 to 31 October 2021, with the participation of 128 teachers, including 77 female teachers and 51 male teachers. Moreover, PCHR concluded 10 training courses through the HAYA Joint Programme during 2020, that targeted 251 male and female teachers, including 172 female teachers with a female participation rate of 68.2%.
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 included the concepts, forms, causes, and means to address gender-based violence, as well as the role of teachers in decreasing the phenomenon of violence.
At the end of the courses, PCHR organized a closing ceremony where Mona al-Shawa, Head of PCHR’s Women’s Rights Unit, emphasized the importance of these training courses as they target a major category of society that works with educational institutions, due to their important role in raising the future generation. Al-Shawa added that these courses enhance the teachers’ major role in combating violence against women and contribute to building a generation that believes in justice and gender equality values and combats all forms of violence against women.
Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, confirmed that throughout the trainings, PCHR seeks to develop skills and build capabilities of those working in educational institutions, to contribute to providing a safe, stimulating, and enhanced school environment by reducing violence against women and gender-based violence. Abu Samra added that these training courses give teachers opportunities by providing them with legal and educational skills that will help them in creating a generation fully aware of its rights and freedoms. He emphasized their great role in combating violence and curbing its devastating effects on the family, the educational environment, and the society, stressing the importance of disseminating the information and experiences they have gained among their peers, students, and their parents.
Mr. Fares Tawil, Project Manager for the HAYA Joint Programme, emphasized the importance of conducting these types of training courses that target both male and female teachers. He also stressed the necessity to continue working with teachers even after concluding the training courses, in order to follow-up on their work on gender-based violence issues in their school environments and transfer the concepts and skills that they learned and developed during the training courses and integrate them into the extracurricular plans in the schools and communities as well.
The participants affirmed that the courses covered a variety of relevant and valuable topics, and the trainers’ efficient, varied, and interactive training methods used in the courses shed light on several important topics, all of which served to enhance and develop their professional skills.
The HAYA Joint Programme seeks to eliminate violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. HAYA is funded by the Government of Canada and jointly implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–Habitat), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in partnership with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development as well as other ministries and civil society organizations.
