«Issues of democracy and human rights»: awareness meetings across the Gaza governorates

Within the project “Strengthening civil society's role in supporting the Palestinian elections”, Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, with funding from the Government of Canada, continues carrying out its awareness meetings on democracy and human rights, targeting through them youth and different groups of society. These meetings were carried out in cooperation with a group of civil-society institutions in all the governorates of the Gaza Strip.

One of those meetings was at the Al-Najat Charitable Association in the Khan Younis governorate, titled “Women's political participation”. The meeting took up the most important sides in which women can take part in society's development, foremost political participation and their contribution to decision-making — which counts as an inseparable part of the theory of democracy and among the most important tools of achieving it. There was likewise talk of women's political, economic, and social rights, discussion of the legal frame of women's political participation, and the attendees discussed the challenges facing women's participation and the role of civil-society institutions and the related bodies in strengthening women's political participation.

As for the meeting on “The participation of youth and women in the elections”, it was carried out in the Rafah governorate in cooperation with the Mujaddidun Development Charitable Association for Youth Support. The attendees — including male and female university graduates — discussed the most important challenges that face youth and women and impede their participation in all respects, whether political, economic, or social, or even legal and educational challenges, pointing to the statistics that attest to the depth of the contradiction between what exists on the ground and what is sought. The attendees spoke of the extent of the youth category's aspiration to the achievement of the Palestinian elections, in which they hope to have the greatest role in accomplishing the results — which in turn will work to solve the crises facing Palestinian society, achieve youth's goals, and open the opportunities and means for them to contribute to developing their society; affirming that youth are indeed aware of their role but are given no opportunities to practise their rights, nor the resources to achieve their goals.

Another meeting was carried out in the middle governorate in cooperation with the Qutuf al-Khair Association on “The principles of human rights”: the most important concepts and definitions of human rights were taken up, and their development according to the different eras — including civil, political, social, and cultural rights and others — and also the principles of human rights in terms of the individual and the collective, the characteristics of those rights, and the most important international covenants of human rights.

In the Gaza governorate, another meeting was carried out titled “The right to access information” in cooperation with the University Graduates Association for the Gaza Strip. It turned on the legal frame of freedom of access to information, and the fundamental principles relating to the right to access information — including the ease of obtaining information from the bodies mandated with the obligation to publish — and discussion of the exceptions at which non-publication is required. The meeting likewise discussed the effect of the absence of a law of the right to access information, and the institutions working in the field of conveying information in Palestine.

A meeting on “Youth and voluntary work” was carried out in the northern Gaza governorate in cooperation with the Milad Association for the Development of Youth Capacities, with the attendance of a group of young volunteers in community work and graduates aspiring to voluntary work. The meeting rested on the importance of community work and the factors of its success according to the changing social needs. The young people spoke of their voluntary works and their forms, and the role of voluntary work in establishing strong relations and improving social and professional skills for youth. The attendees likewise discussed the kinds of services the community-work institutions offer, and how young people define their voluntary capacities according to the community works.

It is recalled that these meetings were carried out by a group of young men and women among the graduates of a training programme titled “Strengthening youth political participation and spreading the concepts of democracy”, carried out in the project's first phase to qualify the youth to pass on the information and contribute to awareness-raising on democracy and rights topics.

The designations used and the presentation of materials in this programme entail no expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Government of Canada