Pal-Think begins a series of awareness meetings under Civic Education phase two

Continuing the efforts Pal-Think for Strategic Studies exerts toward spreading communal awareness of the issues of democracy and human rights and spreading the language of dialogue and tolerance among society's members, Pal-Think carried out an awareness session titled “Strengthening women's capacities in the topics of political participation”, in cooperation with the Future Association for the Care of Victims of Violence, with the participation of the civic-education body members Nidal Abu Sharbi and Maysoon Odeh — within the project “Civic Education 2”, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which aims to create a young generation that believes in the principles of democracy and the concepts of human rights in the Gaza Strip and to find young leaders able to spread these values in their society.

The meeting was opened by the civic-education body member “Nidal Abu Sharbi”, welcoming the attendees and speaking of Pal-Think and its role in strengthening youth's capacities and skills and spreading the culture of women's rights in Palestinian society — making clear the goals of the workshop, which seeks to raise the awareness of the Palestinian woman and all society's members of the right to political participation, and knowledge of the fundamental principles and international agreements that affirmed this right, foremost the CEDAW convention; affirming women's right to political, social, and legal participation and all their rights within Palestinian society.

For her part, the civic-education body member “Maysoon Odeh” spoke of political participation, defining it as “giving the democratic, constitutional right to all of society's adult, rational members to take part in an organised manner in making the political decisions that touch their lives together in a given society, and to practise this right actually, away from the factors of pressure, coercion, and compulsion”. She likewise reviewed the principal international and local laws that organised the right to political participation for all society's members generally and for women especially, and set out also the forms of women's political participation and its importance, and the obstacles and challenges facing them through the process of political participation in Palestinian society. She likewise put forward during the meeting a set of procedures that must be taken in order to ease the process of enabling women to practise their right to political, social, and legal participation”.

During the meeting Odeh likewise showed some videos setting out the difficulties facing women within Palestinian society that impede them from the process of political participation, in addition to reviewing the CEDAW convention, explaining it to the attendees, and making clear its most important clauses, in order to spread awareness.

The workshop included a set of discussions and enquiries among the participants, which were set out and answered by the meeting's facilitators; and at the meeting's close the attendees affirmed the importance of carrying out such meetings that contribute to raising awareness among all of society's groups and contribute to enabling women to take part in political life.

Worth mentioning is that this meeting comes within a series of meetings and activities to be carried out within this project, among them the preparation of research papers discussing issues and topics related to democracy and human rights, as well as carrying out radio episodes and public sessions. An intensive training programme was likewise carried out, continuing for 7 training days, targeting the members of the civic-education body, during which their capacities were developed in the issues of democracy and human rights, research skills, and the skills of presentation and delivery.