The purpose of ILAC´s program in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is mainly to support the Palestinian Bar Association. After several postponements of a planned training session in the West Bank, due to the security situation, it was agreed to move the course to Jordan.
The first training course – organized and implemented by the International Bar Association, with funding from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs – took place in Amman in January 2007.
The objectives of the training were:
- to provide an overview of the international and regional human rights rules and principles applicable to Palestine
- to facilitate skills in research (particularly online research) into human rights
- to encourage active consideration of the application of human rights in the decisions of the Courts of Palestine
- to consider briefl y the principles of International Humanitarian Law and their application
- to consider the minimum international standards for legal practice, the core values of the legal profession and the role of the Bar Association in Palestine.
A total of 50 lawyers attended the course and the feedback from all the participants were that the training met or exceeded their expectations. A second course for lawyers from Gaza has been planned but has not been possible to implement so far. Discussions on how to proceed are going on with ILAC´s member Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza City.