Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS” has organized a training course on political participation and monitoring on election, from a gender perspective, funded by Oxfam, A group of law students from universities around the west bank was targeted with the training, as well as female journalists, lawyers, and civil activists, the training aims to promote women participation in the electoral process and political life in general, lobbying towards implementing a fair, equal approach gender-wise.
Rahal Rahal representing Oxfam has welcomed and encouraged the participations, moreover, he introduced Oxfam and the nature of its work to the participants, as well as the project Oxfam is implementing to promote the participation of women in politics, Professor stressed on the importance of the training to build women capacities regarding monitoring and participation in elections.
Trainer Lubna Al Ashqar, has discussed the concept of political participation in the first day of the training, as well as the importance of women participating in political life and in decision-making, and the obstacles that block women from politically participating in decision making, moreover, She reviewed the Palestinian legal system and its role in guaranteeing women rights and providing needed protection for them, she as well have explained concepts related to the political participations, such as: public opinions, political affiliations and parties, political development, Political culture, and intertest groups as well as other concepts, In addition to that, the mentor reviewed the election democratic standards from a gender perspective, and the motives of political participations (public, private), tackling the above issues through questions, exercises, info graphic videos, role playing, group work, sketches, as well as trainees presentations and statistics presenting women participation and representations in the Palestinian society.
On the other hand, Laywer Anis Abu Alsibaa has reviewed “Elections” as a general topic for the second day of training regarding: why elections, the electoral process and its stages, the elections legal frame, system, and policies, as well as related decrees, conventions and accords, monitoring and surveillance parties, codes of conducts, standards of monitoring from a gender perspective, the preparatory works for monitoring the election from a gender perspective, ( electoral management, The stages of electoral registration, nomination process, Electoral campaigns, vote counting, solving conflicts in election, and Finally, writing the monitoring report by collection and analysis of the systematic data and the elements of the report.
At the end of the training, the participants have recommended and confirmed on the importance of raising awareness and educating women participating in the political life, especially in decision making positions, they as well recommended to have more frequent meetings and trainings, to cover different age categories and groups from all over the west bank, they as well stress on the necessity of amending the law to provide more protection to women, and to guarantee their right of political participation and controlling decision making positions, in addition to the importance of activating women role in monitoring in the electoral process and especially issues related to gender.