The Palestinian Center concludes an advanced training course for the social support committees and reconciliation figures from the Gaza Strip governorates
Gaza: today the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution concluded an advanced training course under the title:
The mechanisms and skills of intervention for the social support committees and men of reconciliation in the governorates of the Gaza Strip to limit violence against women. Around (25 mukhtars and men of reconciliation from all the governorates of the Gaza Strip) took part in the course. It is worth noting that the course continued for ten training days amounting to (50) training hours, during which the trainees received many important subjects, skills and concepts that the mukhtars and notables need to work on in their intervention in community issues. Among the most prominent of these subjects were the definition and causes of violence against women, women's rights in Palestinian legislation, and also the personal status law. The course also included a presentation of the concepts of conflict, how to analyse it, interests and positions, and conflict management
Practical cases were also presented on the sequence and analysis of family conflicts, the concepts of arbitration in family cases, the Palestinian arbitration law and procedures, how appeals are made and what the arbitrator's ethics are, and finally practical applications in arbitration and case studies, the intervention mechanisms adopted at the Centre and practical applications of the use of the Centre's own forms
Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi, projects coordinator at the Centre, said that this course comes within the framework of the philosophy of the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution of working to provide social services when necessary in order to help in mediating and resolving family disputes and to provide free support and assistance services to women who have been and are being subjected to violence, whether at the psychological, social or legal level, in the governorates of Gaza and the West Bank. In addition to this are the Centre's efforts to form a state of public awareness, to strengthen the language of dialogue and understanding, to preserve the structure of Palestinian society and the family and the need to respect women and grant them their rights, through carrying out a large set of workshops and open meetings targeting men and women together, particularly after the last war on Gaza and the effects it left on citizens, particularly from the psychological and social side.
Al-Tahrawi stressed the need to work on forming social support committees from the mukhtars, notables and community figures who enjoy acceptance in the neighbourhoods, villages, cities and governorates
in order to work on alleviating the phenomenon of violence in Palestinian society in general and violence directed against women in particular. In a meeting with the mukhtar Abu Ahmed Abu Sharia from Gaza governorate, he said
that this course is not the first
We have met here with the Conflict Resolution Center to examine many of the issues and problems facing the work of the reconciliation committees
And that the Centre meets the notables and mukhtars in almost monthly meetings to examine and learn of the latest developments and of the experiences of the notables and mukhtars, and to examine the mechanisms by which they work within the framework of Palestinian conventions and traditions
The mukhtar Abu Hatem Shaaban from the North Gaza governorate said that the course addressed examining and developing the mechanisms of social intervention to limit community problems and the violence practised in the family circle, particularly between spouses, and working on setting out suitable solutions for them consistent with professional standards and with the customs and traditions of our Palestinian society. The mukhtar Abu Musa Qaddoum said that this course added new things for the participants, particularly the arbitration forms and the mediation forms trained by several lawyers and arbitrators from the Centre. He said that intervening in family and household cases requires great effort, given the high sensitivity and Palestinian particularity of these cases
The mukhtar Abu Mushir Al-Buhaisi welcomed this step and described it as good, calling for the need to hold continuous meetings for the notables and mukhtars on a continuous and regular basis to discuss the issues that arise and need the intervention of the social support committees.
He said that the Centre refers many cases to some of the notables and mukhtars in cooperation with its social and legal specialists in order to work on them and set out solutions for them so as to do justice to their parties and to produce decisions that satisfy all parties, particularly the problems relating to the family and to violence directed against women, which occur in her circle and need the joining of many parties to limit them and to contribute to alleviating the severity of the violence occurring in Palestinian society.
