The Women’s Unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Organizes Women’s Meeting In Khan Younis

 

Ref: 24/2000

Date: 20 February 2000

Yesterday, 19 February 1999, the Women’s Unit organized a meeting at PCHR’s branch office in Khan Younis. The meeting, which was attended by a number of women’s organizations and activists in Khan Younis, was to discuss possible means of cooperation and coordination between the women’s organizations in Khan Younis, and PCHR, particularly the Women’s Unit. In addition, the meeting investigated means to activate the Unit’s programs in the city.

Mona El Shawa, researcher and coordinator of the Women’s Unit, introduced the Unit’s programs, including the legal aid program. El Shawa explained that the legal aid program aims to provide women, and women’s organizations, with legal advice, and representation before the Sharia and civil courts free of charge. In addition to the legal aid program, El Shawa highlighted the legal awareness program, which conducts lectures in legal issues with the goal of raising women’s awareness of their legal rights. In this regard, El Shawa mentioned that the Unit is publishing a women’s legal handbook series, which introduces women to the laws concerning women’s rights. PCHR believes that awareness of the law is the first step towards modernizing the legal system, and harmonizing it with the concerned international laws and standards.

Hanan Mattar, a lawyer in the Women Unit, gave an overview of the Unit’s work over the last two and a half years. Within this context, she outlined the Unit’s mechanisms for dealing with Sharia and civilian cases.

At the end of the meeting the women’s organizations and activists of Khan Younis welcomed the expected cooperation with the Unit in the area of legal aid and consultation. Moreover, they asked the Centre to organize training sessions in order to upgrade the skills of women’s organization staff in the city.

PCHR Finishes Training Session in Human Rights and Democracy for Political Activists in Khan Younis

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On 3 February 2000, PCHR concluded its training session in human rights and democracy for political activists in Khan Younis. The training session was held in PCHR’s branch office in Khan Younis and was attended by 25 members and activists of Khan Younis’ different political forces. Khaleel Shaheen, Training Unit Coordination, congratulated the participants for the session’s success. He mentioned that the different subjects raised during the session would contribute much to the raising of the participants’ awareness on human rights and democracy. In this regard, he urged the political forces to intensify their efforts in spreading the human rights culture within their political institutions. Moreover he emphasized that such an effort would promote the creation of a membership in the parties fully committed to the norms of human rights and democracy norms.

Raji Sourani, PCHR’s Director, emphasized the high degree of participation among the political forces of Khan Younis, and their active contribution to the success of the session. He asserted the necessity of coordinating the joint efforts of the political parties, and the civil society organizations, in particular human rights organizations, in order to build a Palestinian civil society, and the Palestinian state based on the principles of the rule of law, the independence of judiciary, and respect for human rights and basic individuals’ freedoms. In this regard, he emphasized that the success of the session, which was held one week after the opening of PCHR’s office in Khan Younis, proves the continuity between civil society organizations, and the different segments of the society.

The training session started on 29 January 2000, and lasted for a week. It raised different subjects concerning the International Bill of Human Rights, democracy and pluralism, freedom of expression, women rights, international humanitarian law, the rule of law, and the role of civil society organizations in protecting and promoting human rights. At the end of the session certifications were awarded to the participants