رام الله - ضمن تدخلاتها لمناهضة العنف المبني على النوع الاجتماعي، وتعزيز حماية حقوق المواطنة للنساء من خلال التأثير بالسياسات العامة والقوانين والتشريعات لتعزيز استجابتها للفئات المجتمعية المختلفة، عقدت المبادرة الفلسطينية لتعميق الحوار العالمي والديمقراطية "مفتاح" لقاءً تشاورياُ في محافظة طولكرم، بمشاركة ممثلين عن حماية الأسرة والأحداث، ووزارة التنمية الاجتماعية، ونيابة طولكرم، والمحافظة، ووحدة النوع الاجتماعي في الشرطة الفلسطينية، ومؤسسات أهلية.

وتم خلال اللقاء مناقشة مسودة نظام التحويل الوطني المُعدل، وتسليط الضوء على الفجوات القانونية والإجرائية بغية توثيقها ودراستها في إطار حوار السياسات مع دوائر صناع القرار ذات العلاقة سعياً الى تحقيق الحماية والرعاية للمرأة في القطاعات الصحية والاجتماعية والقضائية والخدماتية والشرطية، وترسيخ بيئة قانونية حامية لحقوق المواطنة والحريات العامة وقيم المساواة.

وتضمن اللقاء تعريفاً بالمفاهيم والمصطلحات من حيث مواءمتها القانونية والحقوقية وفق ما جاء بالاتفاقيات الدولية والأنظمة المحلية، وأهداف النظام، والخدمات المقدمة للمنتفعات في القطاعات الصحية والشرطية، وقطاعي النيابة والقضاء، وتعزيز المساءلة للجهات المختصة والمقدمة للخدمات والمحاسبة للمعتدين ومرتكبي جرائم العنف وفق الأصول الجزائية والتي يرتكز عليها النظام.

وخلص المشاركون في اللقاء التشاوري إلى مجموعة من التوصيات المتعلقة بالعديد من مواد وبنود النظام من أبرزها، ضرورة وأهمية مواءمة النظام مع الاتفاقيات الدولية والمعاهدات التي وقعت عليها دولة فلسطين خاصة فيما يتعلق بالتعريفات والمصطلحات، والعمل على تطوير أهداف النظام، ودمج المادة ٥ مع المادة ٤ والتي تتحدث عن القيم الأخلاقية لمقدمي الخدمة.

كما أكد المشاركون على أهمية إنهاء التضارب مع نظام مراكز حماية المُعنفات بخصوص الفئات التي تشملها الحماية، وأن يشمل النظام آليات محددة تخصصية لكل فئة من الفئات المعنّفة، وعدم اعتماد آلية موحدة لا تأخذ بعين الاعتبار اختلاف فئات النساء المتقدمات للحصول على الخدمة. وضرورة أخذ الاجراءات اللازمة والصحيحة في فحص مستوى الخطورة عند التعامل مع الحالات، وهو أمر ذو صلاحية مشتركة بين جهاز الشرطة، ومرشدة حماية المرأة في وزارة التنمية الاجتماعية.

وأشار المشاركون إلى الاهتمام بتوفير البيوت الأمنة ضمن المعايير الدولية لتقديم هذا النوع من الخدمات، الأمر الذي يعزز من قدرة مراكز المسؤولية من الحفاظ على كرامة وسلامة الحالات التي تتعرض للعنف.

يأتي هذا اللقاء بالتعاون والشراكة مع صندوق الأمم المتحدة للسكان (UNFPA)، في إطار متابعة جهود مؤسسات المجتمع المدني في الضغط على مراكز صنع القرار لإقرار نظام التحويل المُعَدل، والاتفاق على تنسيق تدخلات المؤسسات بما يتعلق بالتعديلات المطلوبة على إجراءات الحصول على خدمات نظام التحويل الوطني للنساء المُعنفات، ومتابعة آخر التطورات المتعلقة بإقرار نظام التحويل المُعَدل، والإجراءات التنفيذية الخاصة بتعزيز حماية النساء المُعنفات، ورصد أداء الجهات القائمة على تنفيذ النظام، وذلك من خلال تفعيل آليات الحوار لضمان ترسيخ بيئة قانونية حامية لحقوق المواطنة والحريات العامة وقيم المساواة.

وتعمل "مفتاح" على تنظيم عدد من اللقاءات التشاورية في محافظات الضفة الغربية، بهدف الضغط لإقرار نظام التحويل الوطني من جهة، والخروج بجملة التعديلات التي من الممكن أن تساهم في جسر فجوات النظام في إطار تقديم الخدمات للنساء المعنفات.

Ramallah – MIFTAH recently held a consultation meeting in Tulkarm as part of its interventions to combat gender-based violence and to promote the protection of citizens’ rights for women through impacting public policies, laws and legislation to be more responsive to the various social sectors. The meeting was attended by representatives of Family and Juvenile Protection Unit, the Ministry of Social Development, the Tulkarm Prosecutor’s Office, the governor, the police department’s gender unit and civil society institutions.

The attendees discussed the draft of the amended referral system and shed light on its legal and procedural gaps in order to document and review them within the context of policy debates with decision-makers. This is with the aim of achieving protection and care for women in the health, social, judicial, service and police sectors and to cement a protective legal environment for citizens’ rights, public freedoms and values of equality.

The meeting included a discussion of concepts and terms and their adaptability in accordance with international treaties, local regulations, the system’s objectives and services provided to beneficiaries in the health, police, prosecution and judicial sectors. It also aimed to promote accountability for relevant parties and service providers and to hold accountable perpetrators of violence, according to the system’s penal codes.

The participants concluded with a number of recommendations on articles and clauses in the system, including: the need to adapt the referral system with international treaties and conventions signed by the State of Palestine, especially regarding definitions and terms; further developing the system’s objectives; and merging Article 5 and Article 4 pertaining to the moral values of service providers.

They also stressed on the importance of ending the confliction with battered women shelter centers regarding the categories covered by its protection. They said the system must include specific mechanisms for each sector of battered women and not adopt one mechanism that does not take the difference between the sectors into consideration. They called for taking the necessary measures to identify the level of severity of each case, which is the joint responsibility of the police and the women’s protection counselor at the Ministry of Social Development.

The participants emphasized the need for safe houses that adhere to international standards, which could provide these services and thereby safeguard the dignity and safety of battered women.

The meeting was held in cooperation and partnership with UNFPA, to follow up on CSO efforts towards pressuring decision-makers into ratifying the amended referral system and agreeing to coordinate institutions’ interventions on the necessary amendments. Another objective was to follow up on the latest developments pertaining to the ratification of the amended referral system and the executive procedures for bolstering protection for battered women. This is in addition to monitoring the performance of parties responsible for the system’s application to ensure that a protective legal environment for citizens’ rights, public freedoms and the values of equality is provided.

MIFTAH holds several consultation meetings in West Bank districts to press for the ratification of the national referral system, on the one hand, and for passing amendments on it to close the gaps in the system to better provide services for battered women.

Ramallah – 11/10/2022 – MIFTAH, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Women’s Coalition for Implementation of UNSCR1325- WPS, held an informatics session on this agenda based on Resolution 1325, at the Palestinian level. The meeting was also attended by youths from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic corps.

A MoFA representative gave the welcoming speech, followed by MIFTAH Executive Director, Dr. Tahreer Araj, who stressed on the importance of joint cooperation between official institutions and Palestinian civil society organizations. She said this was within the framework of joint national efforts, including promoting national alliances between them regarding the Palestinian cause. Araj continued that it was also part of international advocacy efforts towards a Palestinian diplomatic narrative that reflects the reality of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation and sheds light on their efforts within the Palestinian cause. This includes securing their rights, guaranteed by international treaties and conventions to which Palestine is a signatory. Araj stressed on the importance of increasing coordination to support the Palestinian national vision in implementing the WPS agenda, which is linked to UNSCR 1325 and the relevant international mechanisms. She said the objective of this was to integrate the Palestinian women’s vision in the dissemination of the Palestinian narrative and the promotion of the women’s political narrative in Palestinian diplomacy, especially abroad. This, she continued, could bolster civil society’s international advocacy efforts in holding the Israeli occupation accountable for violations against Palestinian women and girls.

Minister of Women’s Affairs, Dr. Amal Hamad then presented on the WPS agenda in the Palestinian context in terms of challenges at the internal and external levels, how to nationalize UNSCR1325 and adapt it to the Palestinian cause, how to increase women’s participation in decision-making and protect them from violence and discrimination.

Hamad called on the UN to pass a UN resolution on Palestinian women under occupation and stressed on the need to enact Resolution 1325 to ensure protection for women and accountability of the occupation for its violations against them. She also said this would boost capacity for gender issues and respect for the rights of the civilian and refugee population, pointing out that none of the 10 UN resolutions pertaining to UNSCR1325 addressed the specificity Palestinian women under occupation. She called for the nationalization of UNSCR1325 and the need to link it with international resolutions of relevance to the Palestinian cause so it is aligned with the Palestinian case. Hamad confirmed the support of civil society for the government in its efforts to implement the UN resolution, in spite of its negative aspects, including its lack of a timeline and the gaps in implementation.

Meanwhile, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dr. Omar Awadallah, presented on the mechanisms for employing the WPS agenda within the Ministry’s diplomatic files and efforts in this regard. He stressed on the importance of developing and promoting the role of women regarding the internal rift, maintaining that this is a crucial role for the protection of Palestinian society from internal disputes.

Awadallah also called for employing all international tools to hold the occupation accountable for its violations, which target Palestinian women. He said a major part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ work is to nationalize treaties signed by the State of Palestine and utilize them in the right direction.

The session included a number of presentations calling for: benefiting from international resolutions and tools pertaining to the Palestinian cause; promoting women’s national and social role; focusing on strategic issues pertaining to women, reviewing agreements and adapting them to the historic, social, cultural and political Palestinian context; confirming integration between CSOs, government institutions and the private sector; cooperation with official diplomatic parties, with a focus on Israeli violations against Palestinian women; organizing international advocacy efforts through MoFA; mobilizing people and communities abroad to support, advocate and lobby for the Palestinian cause and to create bridges between all sectors that champion and support women’s causes.

This session is part of MIFTAH’s cooperation with the relevant national institutions to promote women’s political participation and endorse the implementation of the WPS agenda, based on a framework of international legitimacy. This includes international humanitarian law, human rights treaties and relevant UN resolutions, such as the right to self-determination and the general recommendations issued by the contractual committees, especially those pertaining to The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW.

Ramallah – 19/9/2022 –MIFTAH recently released its 2021/2022 biannual expenditure reports for a number of social sector ministries, as part of its cooperation with UNDP and its social justice program interventions for public fiscal policies. The objective of this program is to promote international transparency standards in public spending policies, in order to shed light on gaps in expenditures in the social sector and their impact on public policies, to ensure standards of social justice in the development of public policies and spending plans.

The findings of the reports for the Ministries of Labor, Education, Health and Social Development, included percentages for their actual spending for the first half of 2022, in comparison to actual spending for the same period in 2021. This reflected several indicators, which showed how public spending was channeled and how committed the Palestinian government is to the financial ceilings of official institutions, in their ratification of the general budget. The reports’ findings showed several gaps in the actual spending of official institutions in the social sector.

According to the Ministry of Social Development’s biannual report, the actual spending was lower in the first half of 2022, compared to 2021. It dropped by ILS111 million from the first half of 2021, whereby the spending rate did not exceed 78% of expenditures in 2021. The report also showed a drop in actual spending in referral costs, which include cash payments to underprivileged families, during the first half of this year. It dropped from ILS461 million during the first half of 2021 to ILS349 million in the first half of 2022. It should be noted that the Ministry of Social Development only disbursed one piecemeal installment for underprivileged families during the first half of this year instead of two.

The Ministry of Education report, including higher education and research, indicated a 3.2% increase in actual spending in the first half of 2022, compared to actual spending in the same period in 2021, which stood at ILS53 million. Spending was primarily on salaries, wages and social contributions in the first half of 2022, at 88.6%, compared to 88.3% of actual spending for the education sector in the first half of 2021.

The actual spending of the Ministry of Health in the first half of 2022 was ILS1,072 million from a total of ILS7,491.5 million of actual spending in the 2022 biannual general budget, or 14.3% of total expenditures. The report also showed that actual spending on commodities and services increased during the first half of 2022, compared to 2021, where it amounted to ILS565.8 million, compared to ILS544.9 million in the first half of 2021.This clause also includes the purchase of medicines and medical referrals.

At the Ministry of Labor, actual spending for the first half of this year was ILS24.6 million of ILS7,491,5 million of the 2022 biannual general budget’s total actual spending, or 0.33% of overall expenditures. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor’s spending rate during the same period in 2021 was only 0.29% of overall expenditures, which indicates the ministry’s humble share of public expenditures in spite of its major role in leading the operational sector and its policies in Palestine.

MIFTAH, in cooperation with civil society institutions, is looking to release position and demand papers to present to the various social sector institutions, with the objective of influencing current spending policies employed by the government. This is in addition to providing organized and periodic access to this data on a website that includes citizens’ budgets and expenditure reports, which MIFTAH developed.