Ref: 10/2020

With participation of 24 members representing 7 community-based organizations (CBOs) active in Rafah City, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded on Thursday, 05 March 2020, a 20-hour training course on women rights and means of intervention and protection to combat violence against women from 02 to 05 March 2020.

This training course, which is the second of its kind this year, contributes to building the capacity of those working and volunteering in civil society organizations and youth groups in the field of human rights concepts in general and women’s rights in particular, in addition to issues relevant to gender-based violence (GBV), and mechanisms of intervention and legal protection to treat these issues.  Thus, they become a new addition in disseminating these concepts within their organizations and colleagues and providing the necessary support to women, who are victims of violence, in a way that promotes and respects women’s rights and enhances their role in building society.

The training program tackled various topics commensurate with the needs of the targeted group, aiming at identifying the concepts of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular in addition to gender-based violence, its forms and causes, ways of dealing with it, the mechanisms of intervention and legal protection of women, who are victims of violence, Palestinian legislations and their role in protecting women, the national intervention system for victims of violence, and women’s political participation.

At the end of the course, PCHR organized a closing ceremony, where Raji Sourani, PCHR’s Director, congratulated the participants on the Interntional Women’s Day that is celevrated on 8th of March.  Sourani praised the Palestinian woman for all her contributions at all levels, and although the Palestinian women suffer like other women all over thw world from violaence and in its different forms, the Paricularity of the Palestinian situtation made them suffer compound violence; the first is the violence practiced by the Israeli occupation and the second by society.  He stressed that it is not possible to talk about a society that enjoys human rights and women, one half of society, are subjected to practices that undermine their dignity and position, because women’s dignity is society’s dignity.

He stressed that PCHR’s keenness to organize such courses for youth to build their capacityies their competencies and enhance their knowledge in order to create a real change in society, calling upon all participants to transfer what they learned in the course to their peers to spread the benefit.  He also called upon them not to hesitate to communicate and contact with PCHR’s staff to benefit from their experience and receive advanced training courses in this field.

Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Director of PCHR’s Training Unit, said that this training course promotes cooperation and networking between PCHR and CBOs in Rafah City.  He emphasized that PCHR, since its establishment, established a specialized unit that works on dissmenating and promoting women’s rights in the Palestinian society and provides legal aid to both women’s organizations and women  in addition to raising the Palestinian woman’s awareness on their rights and contributing to harmonizing the domestic laws  to achieve justice for women who are victims of violence.

He added that this course focuses on basic issues and needs of women and strengthens the capacity of participants in training to respond to cases of violence against women in addition to providing assistance, intervention and protection for women who are victims of violence, through expanding the community interaction between PCHR and the organizations active in women’s issues to achieve a cohesive society that fights all forms of violence.

Wafaa Jaber, Executive Director of the Mojnadidoon Charity Development Association for Youth Support, thanked and appreciated PCHR’s staff for its pioneering role in disseminating and promoting the culture of human rights, calling on youth to benefit from this training course because it is rich with new information and skills.  She emphasized that it is important to have community activits who have human rights awareness in order to achieve creativity and innovation in the Palestinian society.

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

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