The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded two training courses on “Human Rights and Mechanisms to Promote Right to Health”. One training course targeted 25 male and female healthcare service providers from the Palestine Medical Relief Society (PMRS) in the Gaza Strip and the other was attended by 24 male and female students from the Medicine Faculty at the Islamic University in Gaza in coordination with the Palestinian Medical Forum. The 20-hour training courses were held over the course of 4 days from 14 August to 07 September 2022 in Gaza City.
This training courses come as part of PCHR’s training courses held under “Promote, Respect, and Fulfill the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health in the Gaza Strip” project implemented by PCHR in partnership with PMRS and funded by the European Union.
The project aims to improve access to healthcare, legal counseling, and legal assistance for Palestinian patients; to mainstream the culture of international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the right to health, by building the capacities of those working in the health sector and right to health activists; and to promote improved monitoring, documenting, and reporting of violations of the right to health.
At the end of the 2 courses, PCHR held a closing ceremony, where Mr. ‘Abdel Halim Abu Samrah, Head of PCHR’s Training Unit, emphasizes that this course comes as part of PCHR’s interest in enhancing human rights knowledge and its relation with the right to health as a fundamental right. He added that these courses are also part of PCHR’s efforts to perpetuate this right within the national policies, improve patients’ health conditions and healthcare, strengthen the role of those working in the health sector in promoting these rights and protect them while on duty. Abu Samra stressed that we cannot address human rights apart from the human wellbeing, health and mental and physical integrity, adding that realization of the right to health and human rights requires combined efforts from the different non-governmental and governmental sectors and other stakeholders that aim at guaranteeing citizens’ integrity and protection and enabling them to live a decent life.
Mr. Isma’il Abu Jazar, the Supervisor on PMRS’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Program, stressed the importance of holding such a training course for the healthcare service providers at PMRS as it goes with the ultimate goal of PMRS to provide qualitive health care for everyone based on the primary care standards and through engaging and enabling local societies to play an active role in solving their health problems and influencing national policies as a prelude to adopting policies and action plans that guarantee equality and social justice and promote presence of a full medical personnel that provides the best and most qualitative healthcare service.
Yasser Tannira, Head of the Palestinian Medical Forum at the Islamic University and representative of the Medicine Deanshi[, expressed the University and Forum’s appreciation for PCHR on holding the training course. Tannira praised PCHR’s role in promoting human rights and the right to health through their follow-up with all the competent authorities to improve the health conditions in the Gaza Strip. He emphasized that the Forum aims to sustain and develop its relationship with PCHR for best interest of medicine students through continuously holding such training courses that help them to improve their theoretical knowledge and impart scientific and practical skills in human rights as well as improving the medical personnel’s medical and legal skills.