Pal-Think concludes the training «Boosting youth political participation and spreading democratic concepts»

Within the continuous efforts Pal-Think for Strategic Studies exerts in the field of spreading the concepts of democracy and political participation in Palestinian society, and growing and developing Palestinian youth's knowledge and skills on the issues of democracy and human rights, Pal-Think for Strategic Studies concluded a training programme titled “Strengthening youth's political participation and spreading the concepts of democracy”, which continued for seven training days with the attendance of 22 young men and women, and with the participation of an elite of trainers.

This comes within the project “Strengthening civil society's role in supporting the Palestinian elections”, funded by the Government of Canada, which aims to strengthen civil society's role in supporting the Palestinian elections, activate the role of youth, and strengthen the political and communal participation of youth of both sexes to contribute to finding solutions for the crises that face the Palestinian people.

During the training the focus was on the topics and issues that contribute to developing the youth's skills and help them in carrying out the project's future activities, which will comprise carrying out awareness meetings targeting youth, and carrying out radio episodes, accountability sessions, dialogue encounters, and lobbying and advocacy campaigns; and the trainees themselves will work on carrying out these activities.

On the first training day there was talk on the principles of human rights in international law, the most important characteristics of human rights, and the components of the international legality of human rights. On the second day the focus was on the skills of using lobbying and advocacy campaigns to take part in decision-making, and how to use these campaigns to win support in the issues of political participation and human rights. On the third day the strategies of national dialogue and the concepts of democracy were detailed through simulation sessions and a review of the neighbouring states' experiences at the level of democratic dialogue. On the fourth training day there was likewise talk on the importance of the political participation of youth and women in the Palestinian condition and the setting of plans and programmes in order to strengthen this participation. As for the fifth and sixth training days, they were devoted to focusing on the skills of debate and hearing sessions, through granting the trainees the opportunity to choose the issues they see as important at the level of the Palestinian condition and then carrying out a practical debate taking up this issue. On the final training day there was likewise talk on the skills of presentation and delivery, in order to grow and strengthen the trainees' skills in the field of delivery and persuasion.

For her part, the trainee Iman Khalil spoke about the training, making clear: “This is the first time I receive a training of this quality, since the quantity of information and skills we learned during the training is very great and beneficial to us. Also, after this training I have become more confident in myself and more able to speak before people and persuade; and the diversity in the training topics is the greatest encourager for me to read up, study, and educate myself in these topics.”

The trainee Ahed Abdallah likewise added that “the training is distinguished by the diversity of the topics it put forward, and it has a great role in developing and growing skills and in my gaining new information on the issues of democracy and human rights”