Ref: 43/2019

On Thursday, 19 September 2019, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded a training course for female lawyers on human rights law and mechanisms of litigation before Sharia Courts. The course comes as part of a capacity-building project targeting female lawyers in the field of defending and supporting women’s rights, in cooperation with UN Women through the Sawasya II Joint Programme, which is the joint program between UNDP, UN women, and UNICEF that aims at strengthening the rule of law in Palestine.

This training course comes as part of building capacities of female lawyers in the Personal Status Law, and laws related to family and women’s rights in addition to and preparing them to obtain the sharia law license to practice their work before the Sharia courts. The 35-hour course, which was held in the training hall of Capital Mall from 12 – 19 September 2019, and was attended by 25 female lawyers.

The training program of the course included topics that meet the needs of the targeted group. It focused on topics relevant to International human rights law in addition to other topics relevant to Sharia Laws such as the Personal Status Law, Family Law, Inheritance Rules, Waqf (Endowment) rules, and Sharia Proceedings Law.

A team of specialized trainers supervised the training sessions. The team included Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit; Mona al-Shawa, Head of the Women’s Unit; Mohammed ‘Atallah, a trainer at PCHR’s Training Unit; Majdah Shehada; a researcher at PCHR’s Women’s Rights Unit; Samir Hasaneya, and Samah ‘Ashour, lawyers at the Women’s Unit in addition to Sharia judges namely Sa’id Abu al-Jubein, Ibrahim al-Najjar, ‘Omer Nofal, and Salah Abu Hashish.

At the end of the course, PCHR held a closing ceremony where Lawyer Raji al-Sourani, PCHR’s Director, said that these courses comes within PCHR’s legal and humanitarian efforts to protect and disseminate the human rights culture in addition to providing the legal assistance for those who need it. Sourani also reviewed PCHR’s role in promoting and protecting women’s rights and talked about the services provided to women, who are victims of violence, in addition to PCHR’s attempts to harmonize the Personal Status Law with women’s issues as well as developing the judicial system in Palestine.

Mr. Ahmed Bdair, Director of the Sahri’a Bar Association, praised PCHR’s distinctive role in disseminating the culture of human rights and rule of law among young lawyers, pointing out the great relationship between PCHR and the Bar Association.  He added that the course was characterized with its rich topics that will have a positive impact on lawyers’ professional level and their understanding of human rights as well as the the Personal Status Law.

The participants praised PCHR’s unique role in raising their efficiencies in pleading before Sharia Courts.  They added that the course was characterized with its rich topics that will have a positive impact on lawyers’ professional career especially in their work under the Personal Status .

At the end of the ceremony, all participants received certificates.