Strengthening Civil Society Engagement in Promoting the Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Line with international Instruments
Background:
“Strengthening Civil Society Engagement in Promoting the Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Line with international Instruments” project is funded by Caritas Germany and Children's Relief Bethlehem. The project aimed at promoting the role of Palestinian civil society to become an effective force in the protection and monitoring of human rights in line with international human rights standards, conventions, and instruments.
Project specific objectives:
The specific objective of this project was to strengthen civil society actions to promote and protect universal human rights of women and girls with disabilities, through strengthening civil society capacity in reporting on human rights violations, raising opportunities for effective engagement of civil society organizations to implement creative actions, including social media initiatives, and enabling improved dialogue between duty bearers and rights holders to promote the principle of non-discrimination and human rights of women and girls with disabilities.
Target Group:
10 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) including Disabled Peoples’ Organizations (DPOs); 500 men, women, girls and boys in marginalized communities in the south of West Bank; the general public, and national service providers engaged with the National Referral System for women victims of violence.
Project activities and outputs:
- Public awareness and understanding of human rights standards and human rights violations faced by women and girls living with disabilities are enhanced, through media materials and activities which included animated videos, radio spots, vox-pop interviews with university students, and TV talk shows.
- Civil society organizations are advocating for increased compliance with national legislation, policies, and institutions with international standards on rights of women and girls with disabilities, through a specialized study on gender based violence and violence against PwD and a national conference on the rights of females with disabilities to protection.
- Technical capacity of CBOs to advocate, monitor, document, and report on human rights violations faced by women and girls living with disabilities is enhanced, through the development and distribution of a resource toolkit to partner CBOs and other stakeholders in the project’s targeted area and other geographic areas in the West Bank, and as part of it the easy to read versions of the CRPD and CEDAW were sent to a few organizations in Gaza in addition to conducting 9 training days for 8 partner CBOs on the rights of girls and women with disabilities, monitoring, documentation and reporting on violations, advocacy, planning and implementation of community advocacy and awareness initiatives.
- 5 CBOs implemented outreach campaigns and initiatives to promote the rights of women and girls with disabilities and monitor violations against them through the support of the project.