Ref: 22/2022

Date: 29 August 2022

On Thursday, 25 August 2022, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded the second training course in 2022 on “Human Rights and Mechanisms to Promote Right to Health”, with the participation of 24 medical laboratory specialists and in coordination with the Medical Technology Syndicate in the Gaza Strip. The 20-hour training course was held over the course of 4 days from 22 to 25 August 2022 in Gaza City.

This training course comes as part of PCHR’s training courses held under “Promote, Respect, and Fulfill the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health in the Gaza Strip” project implemented by PCHR in partnership with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) and funded by the European Union.

The project aims to improve access to healthcare, legal counseling, and legal assistance for Palestinian patients; to mainstream the culture of international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the right to health, by building the capacities of those working in the health sector; and to promote improved monitoring, documenting, and reporting of violations of the right to health.

At the end of the course, PCHR held a closing ceremony; during which, ‘Abdel Halim Abu Samra, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, emphasized that the course aims to educate the medical personnel on the international human rights standards and the latter’s relation with doctors’ best practices; their role in protecting the right to health; and the medical personnel’s obligations and duties. Abu Samra hoped that the participants will transfer what they have learnt in the course to their peers and colleagues to spread the benefit and knowledge.

For his part, Dr. Mohammed Dawoud, Head of the Medical Technology Syndicate in the Gaza Strip, commended the importance of such cooperation with PCHR in training the medical personnel in the health field, demanding it would continue to target all the medical personnel. He hoped that more members of the Medical Technology Syndicate would receive such courses, with the aim of having a medical staff that would provide the best and finest medical service with professionalism and integrity and contribute to a better access to health services for Gaza Strip population.  

Isma’il Abu Jazar, the Supervisor on PMRS’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Program, emphasized the importance of such a training course, especially in light of the difficult situation facing the health sector due to the Israeli-imposed closure and its repercussions on the Strip in a way that affects the quality of health services provided to the population.  Abu Jazar called on the male and female participants to benefit from the course topics through building their capacities and improving their skills in order to create a medical staff that can provide the health service from a human rights perspective.

For their part, the participants praised the course, which was characterized with its rich topics and contributed to raising their awareness on human rights in general and the right to health in particular.