MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Ramalah - MIFTAH CEO, Dr. Lily Feidy, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nasser Qattami, Deputy Minister of Labor and Acting President of the National Committee for Women’s Employment. The MoU involves the establishment of a monitoring unit to document violations against women in the work place, particularly in agricultural and small-services sectors.

Projects director at MIFTAH, Najwa Yaghi, welcomed partners who joined hands to endorse the MoU, namely the section on monitoring the rights of working women. She said this was part of the main goals of the national committee’s strategic plan that intersect with MIFTAH’s strategic objectives to influence policy and legislation to ensure their safeguarding of civil and social rights for all sectors. “This MoU is the first of a series of work of the monitoring unit to document violations of women rights in the work place". Yaghi added: "producing evidence reports to influence policies to protect women's rights in the work place is a very important strategic goal of the National Committee for Women's Employment". The intervention is supported by the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (HRIHL).

Deputy Minister of Labor, Qattami, said he is pleased with the MoU signed with MIFTAH, stating that the organization has a long-standing history in training and empowering leadership in the Palestinian society to promote democracy. “Monitoring violations against working women is an extremely difficult task,” he admits. “In the past, there has never been a national framework to regulate this issue, only efforts here and there.” He said he hopes this will change with the realization of a functioning monitoring unit, which will organize and consolidate all of these efforts, with the main goal of producing evidence reports through monitoring and documenting these violations and formulating mechanisms for their treatment.

Dr. Feidy confirmed that this monitoring unit was the first cooperative project with the National Committee via The Ministry of Labor, thus reflecting the complementary role between civil society institutions and the government. “Without this kind of cooperation, we cannot build our homeland,” Feidy said. “It is not enough, however, to only document the violations. What is more important to Palestinians is that the work continues and more efforts are made to achieve sustainability. We want our work to be a success story which is constantly developing. “In this regard, Feidy stated that the government needs to pay more attention to working women in the informal sector where they are deprived of many rights. “I hope we can continue to cooperate and coordinate with the government at the highest levels. The government and civil society institutions can then prove they can work hand-in-hand and that equality between men and women is not just a slogan but a reality.”

Dr. Laura Khoury, a member of the National Committee and Director of the Center for Development Studies in Birzeit University, said in a brief presentation at the signing event: “If we begin to look at violations as one of the symptoms of the disease, then we must get to a point where we treat the disease itself.” She maintained that the establishment of this monitoring unit was the ‘first step', adding that she hopes in two-year time they will achieved what they originally aspire for.

Iman Assaf, Director of the Gender Unit at the Ministry of Labor, said they are looking to “clearly determine our future vision through developing the general framework for the monitoring system", “In this way, we can work collectively towards achieving this vision.” Assaf continued, “We have put the wheels in motion and later we will stream monitoring violations against working women in every sector. The most important thing is continuity and sustainability.”

The signing of the MoU is aligned with the strategic framework of the National Committee for Women’s Employment and aspires to establish a National Monitor to document violations against working women, which was officially launched by the Ministry of Labor on September 29, 2014. It is also compatible with the strategic goals of MIFTAH in its capacity as a member in the National Committee seeking to promote social dialogue towards influencing general policies.

Representatives from Ministries of Prisoners Affairs and Agriculture were present at the signing event, along with representatives from the General Union of Palestinian Women, the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Center for Development Studies - Birzeit University and the Women Business Forum.

 
 
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