Ref: 35 /2022

Date: 21 November 2022

On Thursday, 17 November 2022, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded two new training courses for this year on “Human Rights and Mechanisms to Promote Right to Health”. Twenty-four members of the medical personnel working at Al-Wafaa Charitable Hospital and primary health-care centers in Gaza participated in the ninth training course while 25 blood bank technicians participated in the tenth training course. The two 20-hour training courses were held from 07 to 17 November 2022 in Gaza City.

These training courses are held under “Promote, Respect, and Fulfill the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health in the Gaza Strip” project implemented by PCHR in partnership with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) and funded by the European Union. The project aims to improve access to healthcare, legal counseling, and legal assistance for Palestinian patients; to mainstream the culture of international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the right to health, by building the capacities of those working in the health sector and right to health activists; and to promote improved monitoring, documenting, and reporting of violations of the right to health.

At the end of the two courses, PCHR held a closing ceremony, where Mr. Ibrahim Sourani, lawyer at PCHR’s Legal Unit, stressed the importance of the training program in capacity building of the medical personnel at the government and non-governmental sectors to create and prepare medical personnel capable of providing proper health care in accordance with human rights standards. Sourani emphasized the significant role of medical staffs in promoting society’s access to healthcare and their ongoing endeavors to improve the health conditions in the Gaza Strip, especially in light of crises that the Palestinian society suffers from.

For his part, Isma’il Abu Jazar, the Supervisor on PMRS’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Program, stressed the importance of the continuous work with PCHR to train the highest possible number of medical personnel on issues relevant to the right to health, build their capacities and improve their skills in order to create medical personnel that can provide qualitative health services from a human rights perspective.

Dr. Jamal Saber Khaswan, Chairman of al-Wafaa Charitable Society’s Board of Directors, praised PCHR and PMRS’s effective role in following up with all the competent authorities to improve the healthcare conditions in the Gaza Strip despite all circumstances and challenges facing the healthcare system, particularly in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the closure and its repercussions.  Dr. Khaswan stressed the importance of ongoing relation and contact with PCHR and strengthening it to have a society fully aware of its rights.

Dr. ‘Ameed Mushtaha, Director of the Department of Laboratories and Blood Banks in the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) in Gaza, thanked PCHR and PMRS for their efforts in holding such training courses for the MOH medical personnel, stressing the importance of these courses in strengthening and improving the capacities of the medical staffs working in laboratories and blood banks on issues relevant to the right to health. He hoped that such courses would target more numbers of blood bank technicians with the purpose of having a medical staff that would provide the best and finest medical service with efficiency and integrity and contribute to a better access to health services for the Gaza Strip population.  

Dr. Mushtaha added that the training course was characterized with its rich topics that have raised participants’ awareness of human rights in general and right to health in particular; praising trainers’ efficiency and various and interactive training methods used in the courses.”

For their part, the participants commended the course, which was characterized with its rich topics and contributed to raising their awareness on human rights in general and the right to health in particular.