Ref: 31/2020Date: 14 July 2020
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded on Monday, 13 July 2020, a training course on “Human Rights and Mechanisms to Promote Right to Health” , taking all the preventive and health safety measures for the trainers and trainees. The 20-hour-training course was held over the course of 4 consecutive days, from 08 – 13 July 2020, with participation of 25 female and male doctors and nurses that work in primary health care centers in Khan Younis.
This training course is the sixth of its kind that in 2020 within PCHR 3-year project “Promote, Respect, and Fulfill the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health in the Gaza Strip” implemented 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 disseminate 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 to promote improved monitoring, documenting and reporting of violations of the right to health. A total of 8 training courses will be held during 2020, targeting 200 members of the medical personnel and activists in the Gaza Strip.
At the end of the course, PCHR held a closing ceremony where Lawyer Raji Sourani, PCHR Director, emphasized that these training courses came within PCHR’s long-term work in training and raising awareness of health sector personnel. Sourani added that this project is being implemented under a dire deterioration in the human rights conditions, particularly the right to health, as the health sector is on the brink of collapse due to the catastrophic status quo caused by the Israeli closure and its disastrous implications on the health sector, and by the Palestinian internal division.
Additionally, Sourani added the right to health is a fundamental human right, and stressed PCHR’s focus on organizing such courses to raise competencies and their knowledge on human rights by building the capacities of workers in the field on the mechanisms that can be followed to defend and promote their rights to create real change in society and the right to health. Sourani urged participants to transfer what they learned in the course to their peers for the sake of disseminating knowledge and for public interest.
Dr. Tamim Saqer, Head of Khan Younis Health Department, expressed his appreciation for PCHR’s efforts to conduct this training course under the state of emergency at the Ministry of Health to combat coronavirus. Dr. Saqer stressed the importance of this training in promoting and developing the capacities of workers in the field of human rights, especially the right to health, to improve access to health services and enhance community access to health, building their capacities and increasing public awareness. Dr. Saqer added that the training course brought them new knowledge, with the rich topics it addressed and its contribution to raising participants’ awareness of human rights in general, particularly the right to health. He also commended the competence of the trainers and training methodology both participatory and diverse.
