December 6, 2018
PCHR Concludes Training Crouse in Human Rights and Democracy
PCHR Concludes Training Crouse in Human Rights and Democracy

Ref: 50/2018

On Thursday, 06 December 2018, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded a training course in human rights and democracy. The 20-hour course was held at PCHR’s office in Gaza from 03 to 06 December 2018, and attended by 20 students representing the Faculties of Law in the Gaza Strip’s universities, as part of PCHR’s long-term efforts to disseminate the culture of human rights and democracy among the university students and enhance their legal and human rights skills.  The closing ceremony was attended by ‘Issa Saba and Hashim al-Thalathini, Members of PCHR’s Board of Directors, and Raji Sourani, PCHR’s General Director.

The course focused on a number of international human rights instruments that fit with the needs of the targeted group, including included an introduction to human rights, the International Bill of Human Rights (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights); the two Additional Protocols; Political Participation; Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; principle of rule of law and Independence of Judiciary; basic concepts in international humanitarian law and Gender-Based Violence.

Team of PCHR’s trainers supervised the training sessions. The team included Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Director of PCHR’s Training Unit; Khalil Shaheen, Director of PCHR’s Economic Social Rights Unit; Mona al-Shawa, Director of PCHR’s Women Unit; Mohammed ‘Atallah, a trainer at PCHR; Sharif Abu Nassar, lawyer at PCHR’s Legal Unit; Majedah Shehadah, a Researcher at PCHR’s Women’s Unit; and Mohammed Abu Hashem, a legal researcher at PCHR.

 

At the end of the course, PCHR organized a closing ceremony. Hashim Thalathini, Member of PCHR’s Board of Directors, emphasized PCHR’s long-term efforts to promote the culture of human rights among university students and raise awareness about their legal rights to create a society and generation fully aware and capable of defending their fundamental rights and freedoms.

 

Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, emphasized that “these courses come as part of PCHR’s work in training and raising awareness of university students, especially law faculties. He expressed his hopes that this cooperation will continue in the service of law students in the field of human rights, stressing the keenness of PCHR to organize such courses for students to raise their competencies and develop their capabilities in human rights by providing them with the knowledge of the mechanisms that can be followed to defend their rights, develop their theoretical knowledge and impart scientific and practical skills in human rights, to create real change in society.” Sourani also said that the Palestinian human rights movement added a fourth dimension relevant to its work in documenting human rights violations, building legal files and prosecuting war criminals, and this represents a state of human superiority to defend human rights. Sourani stressed that PCHR’s doors will always be open to participants in order to benefit from PCHR’s experience regarding what they have learnt, urging participants to transfer what they learned in the course to their peers for the dissemination of interest.

Student, Mohamed al-Hubi, said that, “the course was characterized with its rich topics and contributed to raising participants’ awareness of human rights; trainers’ efficiency and various and interactive training methods used in the course.”

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