Ramallah – The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) held 10 legal consultation sessions at its headquarters in Ramallah. This came as part of PWWSD’s project, to Improve “Women and Girls’ Access to Justice and Security by Ensuring Accountable Service Provision” cooperation with and with funding from UN Women, through Sawasya (the UN Women/UNDP joint program – Strengthening the Rule of Law: Justice and Security for the Palestinian People).
The legal Consultation sessions lasted for 5 days averaging two sessions a day, held on (8, 17, 22, 23, 25 of May 2016) and targeting 12 female law graduates from Bethlehem, Ramallah, Salfit, Tulkarem, Jenin, and Nablus.
The sessions aimed to highlight the family-related laws applied in both Sharia and regular courts, to introduce the grounds used to demand law amendments, to raise the standard for Sharia courts and their work, to highlight controversial items in the Personal Status Law, and to monitor the reality of Sharia courts. The sessions also aimed at developing the participants’ practical skills at analyzing laws in real situations, and linking them to other laws that relate to the groups seeking Sharia courts, as well as enhancing the graduates’ discussion and debate skills to be logical, realistic and convincing to decision makers.
Project Coordinator, Hana Qaysse noted that the importance of these sessions lies in enhancing the participants’ abilities to have constructive dialogue and criticism, and in introducing the main controversial items in the Personal Status Law (marriage eligibility, witnesses, guardianship, marriage, expenditure, custody, visitation, divorce, separation, family counselling, and joint finances). The meetings targeted new female law graduates who participated in the organization’s previous training held in March titled “Judiciary court procedures and regulations about women’s issues, UNSC resolution 1325, and CEDAW”. The sessions’ goal was to build on the participants’ theoretical knowledge and to develop their capacity and skills in defending women’s issues in a more practical way to face any obstacles to achieving justice in courts.
Hanan Shomar, a participant in the sessions, said, “The legal consultation sessions gave me the ability to apply international standards to national legislation, and to balance and apply them in the cases presented in Palestinian courts. The sessions also helped me practically apply the theory I learned on providing counselling and consultations that empower aggrieved groups to achieve justice.”
It is worth noting that PWWSD’s project “Improving Women and Girls’ Access to Justice and Security by Ensuring Accountable Service Provision”, which is implemented in cooperation and funding from UN Women, aims to build women’s abilities to achieve justice, security, and protection by providing legal accountability services, as well as meeting the legal needs of women and girls in the West Bank.