Ref: 43/2022

Date: 18 December 2022

On Thursday, 15 December 2022, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded a training course on “Monitoring and Documenting Violations and Mechanisms for Preparing and Writing International Reports: CEDAW as a Model”.  The training was attended by 21 female and male staff members at women’s organizations active in the field of defending women’s rights. The 20-hour training course was held from 12 to 15 December 2022 in Gaza City.

The training program aims at building the capacity of civil society staff, particularly women’s organizations, on monitoring and documenting violations against women’s rights in accordance with CEDAW, developing their skills with regard to the mechanisms for preparing, writing, presenting, and discussing reports submitted to international committees, and educating them on the periodic review mechanism as part of States’ obligations under international conventions.

The training program is divided into two main components:

• Introductory training on the international human rights law and conventions signed by the State of Palestine, as well as human rights-based approach, and the and skills and mechanisms for monitoring and documenting women’s rights violations.
• Theoretical and practical training on the mechanisms for preparing, writing, presenting and discussing reports, whether they were official or shadow reports.

At the end of the course, PCHR held a closing ceremony, where Abdel Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, emphasized that this training course, which is organized by PCHR for the third year in a row, comes as part of PCHR’s efforts to develop the capabilities of the staff members in the women’s organization active in women’s and girls’ rights advocacy locally and internationally, especially as they suffer from combined injustice due to the Israeli systematic practices when targeting and arresting civilians, especially women, and societal violence based on patriarchy and prevailing cultural heritage in the society.

Abu Samra hoped that this training course would contribute to helping these participants and organizations to play their role of raising awareness on women’s rights, monitoring and documenting violations against women, working to follow them up and bring them justice, and increasing the number of women’s organizations to take part in preparing and writing national and shadow reports submitted to international committees, especially regarding CEDAW.

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