WUNRN
PALESTINE – YOUNG PALESTINIANS PUSH FOR A GENDER-EQUAL
CONSTITUTION
More
than 700 young Palestinians have received leadership and gender-sensitivity training
and several have collectively drafted an alternative constitution that
challenges the status quo.
Young
members of community-based organizations have been taking part in the advocacy
campaign, putting up posters calling for gender equality in the Palestinian
Constitution. Photo: Palestinian Centre for Peace and Democracy/Ibrahim
Abdeljawwad
8 April 2015 - “I used to be afraid to give my opinion, but now
I tell people about complex issues like politics, women’s rights and the
Constitution. I feel strong,” says 24-year-old Amani Thawabta, a law school
graduate from Palestine. Although she speaks about lobbying for women’s rights
as powerfully as a lifelong advocate, that wasn’t always the case. Amani is
from the small Palestinian village of Beit Fajjar in the central West Bank,
where the conservative culture makes it hard for young women to take part in public
life or claim their rights. Even travelling to nearby Bethlehem to attend
university was a challenge.
Amani came out of her shell after meeting representatives of the
Palestinian Centre for Peace and Democracy and the Jerusalem Centre for Women,
who are implementing a programme supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender
Equality. They visited Beit Fajjar in early 2013 to recruit and train young
educated Palestinians like Amani to lobby for greater gender equality in the
Constitutional drafting process, which has been underway for decades in
Palestine.
Members
of the Constitutional Shadow Committee participate in a constitution drafting
session after completing a capacity development workshop. Photo: Palestinian
Centre for Peace and Democracy/Ibrahim Abdeljawwad
At first shy and reserved, Ms. Thawabta soon emerged as a
committed organizer, taking part in many of the programme’s workshops and
organizing others in her own community. Through 29 workshops held across
Palestine, more than 700 young Palestinians like her have learned about
political analysis, lobbying and advocacy, and Constitution-building.
She is also among a group of 26 young women and men representing
25 community-based organizations from rural and urban Palestine who formed a
coalition called the Constitutional Shadow Committee. Drawing on the knowledge
gained through such workshops, they drafted an alternative constitution that
challenges the lack of gender equality in the current third draft, prepared by
the official Constitutional Committee, which is comprised only of men.
To reach as many people as possible, the Shadow Committee
established a Coalition of Organizations for Constitutional Equality in early
2014, spearheading an advocacy and lobbying campaign that engaged 117 political
leaders from across the political spectrum in six roundtable discussions, and
reached another 118 high-ranking officials (governors, ministers, members of
the Palestinian Legislative Council, municipal leaders, political party
leaders, lawyers and representatives of national NGOs). The coalition also used
television and radio ads, newspaper articles, billboards, leaflets and social
media messaging to garner support for its recommendations.
“As we are discussing our Statehood, we need politicians and the
public to be aware of the important issue of non-discrimination in our
Constitution,” adds Abdallah Kamil, Governor of Tulkarem. “The young women and
men who have written this better version and are advocating for it are an
example for society.”
Many young women who played a leading role in drafting the
Shadow Constitution have been at the forefront of the campaign, placing them in
leadership roles they never imagined. Layali Bedawi, 23, from Tulkarem in the
West Bank, says she rarely participated in activities outside her community
prior to the UN Women-supported training, because she felt unsafe doing so as a
woman.
“I now feel that I have a right to speak up and say that women
are equal to men and deserve the same opportunities,” says Ms. Bedawi. “I now
travel to different cities and have the chance to learn from other women there
and have lost my fear, because I know I have a voice to defend myself.”