Ref: 44/2021

Date: 01 September 2021

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded on Wednesday, 01 September 2021, a training course on “Promoting the capabilities of journalists in human rights in general, and women’s rights in particular,” in cooperation with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. The 20-hour-training course was held over the course of 4 consecutive days, from 29 August – 01 September 2021, and it was attended by 25 female and male journalists.

This course is part of PCHR’s long-term efforts to build the capacities of the Palestinian journalists and media personnel in human rights, especially women’s rights and freedom of opinion and expression for their important role in shedding light on women’s issues, especially gender-based violence (GBV), in addition to enhancing the major role of the media in raising awareness of the community.

The training program tackled various topics such as: the International Bill of Human Rights, Human Rights Based Approach, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), GBV, freedom of opinion and expression in national and international legislations, Cybercrime Law, mechanisms of monitoring and documenting violations conducted against journalists, and International Protection of journalists in armed conflicts.

At the end of the course, PCHR held a closing ceremony where Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, emphasized the historic relationship between PCHR and those working in the field of media (visual, audio and written). He stressed that this relationship is integrative in a way aimed to protect human rights, exposing human rights violations, and informing public opinion against them. Abu Samra explained that cooperation with journalists is on top of PCHR’s priorities. He added that the course was a platform for social dialogues rather than a training course, highlighting that the human rights reflect social issues, where media is considered as the mirror of society’s reality and a tool for shaping public opinion. Also, he wished that these courses would contribute to deepening knowledge and understanding of concepts, standards and mechanisms relating to the media’s role in the human rights field.

Dr. Tahseen al-Astal, Deputy Director of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate appreciated PCHR’s unique efforts in the field of disseminating human rights culture among staff members working in different forms of media. He also praised PCHR’s on-going role in defending the freedom of opinion and expression in Palestine, and PCHR’s contribution to enhancing the journalists’ capacities in the human rights fields, laws specialized for journalistic work, and protection and intervention mechanisms.

Dr. al-Astal explained that this course comes as part of the joint collaboration with PCHR to enhance the capabilities of male and female media personnel, in-line with the Syndicate’s role in helping journalists and enhancing their capabilities in human rights fields and their legal relations with their institutions and society, towards achieving responsible and professional journalism obliged to its ethics and standards, looking forward to holding more courses that fulfil the needs of journalists.

The participants emphasized that the course was characterized with its rich topics; and praised trainers’ efficiency and varied interactive training methods used in the course, which shed light on several important topics which enhanced and developed their skills.

At the end of the ceremony, all participants in the training course received certificates.