2017-07-12

Gaza

Gaza

In coordination with the Lawyers for the Rule of Law Groups (friends of MUSAWA) and the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders’ Network (PHRDs), MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession held a discussion with the citizens living in the North of the Gaza Strip as part of its legal clinic program to converse about their most common legal problems and the rights they are entitled-to as rights-holders. Believing in the vitality of networking with other CSOs, MUSAWA held the workshop at the Family Development Association in Beit Hanoun near the Beit Hanoun crossing/ Erez crossing. A total of 19 people participated in the workshop, including 17 women.

This workshop came as a continuation of the legal aid program MUSAWA implements at various levels. MUSAWA believes in the need to spread the legal culture and the culture of human rights among the Palestinian society, especially in marginalized areas, and to contribute to enhancing the legal awareness of the community in order to enable the community groups to identify their rights and the legal mechanisms available for them to protect these rights, particularly the right to equality before the law and the judiciary, the right to access to justice and the right to fair trial guarantees.

The workshop was facilitated by MUSAWA’s Legal Awareness and Training Officer, Adv. Momen Al-Hattab, and a member of the Lawyers for the Rule of Law Groups, Adv. Hala Hasanein. The discussion revolved around introducing the participants to the nature of work and activities that MUSAWA’s legal clinic carries-out. Furthermore, the floor was open for a conversation about many of the legal issues the participants face, which was addressed by giving the proper legal opinion regarding the matter at hand.

At the end of the workshop, the participants recommended that more workshops be conducted in all of the governorates so as to reach the largest number possible of citizens. They also asked MUSAWA to hold trainings about the most prominent issues that the Palestinian society is dealing with, such as labour rights; the basic rights guaranteed by the Basic Law; women’s right to inheritance, alimony funds and custody, as stipulated in the Personal Status Law.

This workshop comes as part of the mobile legal clinic program, executed by MUSAWA both in the West Bank and Gaza.