THE GENDER CROSS-SECTORAL COUNTRY STRATEGY The Palestinian National Plan

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Ensuring that Palestinian women of Jerusalem preserve their right to residency, movement and nationality rights.  Policy: Taking all necessary legal and advocacy measures locally and internationally to ensure that Palestinian Jerusalemites’ nationality and residence rights are protected.

Suggested Interventions  Adopting a unified Palestinian stand on dealing with Israeli courts  Exposing the discrimination and the bias of Israeli courts and Israeli military law, which violates international human rights.  Exposing the measures of Israeli Occupation and Israeli settlers against the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.  Advocacy for a meeting of countries party to the Geneva Convention to discuss Israeli violations and the responsibility of the international body vis-à-vis Palestinian residents of Jerusalem  Preparation and implementation of an action plan for the follow-up of crimes against Palestinians in various countries party to the Geneva Convention.  Protecting Palestinian women in Jerusalem and raising their legal awareness.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Enabling women to have access to a family law that ensures equity and justice.  Policies: A. Taking all legal and legislative measures that encourage the institutionalization of the principle of equality, justice and equity between the sexes in the Palestinian Family Law. B. Taking a number of measures to ensure that women are able to access a civil status law that ensures equality, equity and justice.

Suggested Interventions  The enactment of the Unified Palestinian Family Law.  Preparation and dissemination of a marriage contract that includes all rights of Palestinian women.  Ensuring that the allocations of the Alimony Funds are received (from the budget of the PA).  Ensuring that women receive their rightful share of their inheritance.  Modification of the Palestinian Civil Status Law.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Decreasing the level of violence against Palestinian women in all its forms  Policies: A. Legislation of a law on the “protection of women against family violence” B. Modification of the Penal Code from a gender perspective. C. Modification of criminal procedures law in relation to the articles related to the follow-up of crimes which discriminate between men and women in restricting the limitation of evidence.

Suggested Interventions  A National Committee formed by a number of women and human rights organizations as well as gender units in various ministries and the Ministry of Women Affairs are currently working together on a comprehensive plan to tackle the issue of violence against women.  Their detailed plan will be ready by the end of March 2010.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Empowering women and enabling them to participate effectively in active political decision- making.  Policies: A. Taking all legal and administrative measures needed to raise the political participation of women. B. Taking all required measures to rectify the cultural traditions and social norms which discriminate against women C. Taking all necessary measures to raise the capacity of women and enhance their skills.

Suggested Interventions  Modification of the political parties law; the electoral law; the labor and vocational union law and the civil society law from a gender perspective.  Lobbying for an electoral system that would facilitate and support women’s representation in political decision-making  Facilitating the representation of females at the students councils in colleges and universities.  Drafting a media strategy to confront the negative social and cultural traditions and norms against women.  Amending the Palestinian curricula so that it reflects the role and the participation of women in political decision-making.  Training programs for women to enhance their capacity and skills.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Improving the educational services in Palestine in quantity and quality from a gender perspective  Policies: A. Raising compulsory education till the end of the secondary cycle B. Taking all appropriate measures in order to mainstream gender issues and concerns in school curricula and in higher education curricula C. Taking all appropriate measures in order to raise the participation of women in vocational and agricultural education D. Taking all appropriate measures to ensure that females and males with special needs have access to educational facilities.

Suggested Interventions  Revising and modifying the basic education law so that it includes compulsory education till the end of the secondary cycle, either academic or vocational (with the ministry of education or the ministry of labor)  Activating school counseling for girls and raising their awareness and their families’ about the importance of education and the negative effects of early marriage  Establishing a fund for financially deprived female students and linking it to secondary schools in remote areas.  Modifying two books of the school curriculum titled “Qadaya” or “Issues” from a gender perspective.

Suggested Interventions  The enactment of the law on vocational education  Encouraging female students to enroll in vocational education  Opening two new vocational education specializations linked to the needs of the country and to the labor market  Raising the awareness of girls and the society at large about the importance of female enrolment in agricultural studies  Developing the facilities in schools so that they adequately address the needs of males and females with special needs.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Increasing the protection of women’s health  Policies: A. Taking all legal and administrative measures to provide women with comprehensive medical care in the different stages of their life cycles B. Taking all measures in order to provide women with the physical, psychological and mental health care needs C. Raising the awareness of women about their health and reproductive rights D. Adoption of an affirmative action policy regarding women working in the health sector so that they are better represented in decision-making

Suggested interventions  Revising the health-related laws from a gender perspective.  Mainstreaming gender issues and concerns in health policies and practices.  Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of health laws and policies.  Providing adequate health services to protect women’s health.  Providing adequate health providers including those specialized doctors to address women special needs.  Raising the awareness of women and the society about reproductive health and the maladies that affect women specifically.

Suggested Objectives and Policies  Objective: Improving the economic participation of women and increasing their participation in economic decision-making  Policies: A. Taking all legislative and executive measures to protect women from all forms of discrimination at the work place. B. Taking all appropriate measures to provide income-generation opportunities for women including their right to social security, especially for unemployed women in the category of those who have +13 years of education. C. Adoption of a strategy of mainstreaming gender issues and concerns in economic-related ministries. D. Adopting an affirmative action policy to increase the economic participation of women. E. Providing social protection legally for women working in the informal sector.

Suggested Interventions  Modifying the relevant economic-related laws and preparing executive procedures for the labor law  Preparing a strategy that takes into consideration the outputs of higher education and the needs of the labor market, from a gender perspective  Providing the services that facilitate women’s reproductive needs  Creating work opportunities for unemployed women who have +13 years of education  Developing and providing the economic sector data from a gender perspective and disseminating it locally and internationally  Mainstreaming gender issues and concerns in ministries related to the economic sector  Raising the awareness of women in issues related to their economic rights

Suggested Interventions  Counting domestic work within the national economy and codifying it  Developing the outreach to regional and international bodies which support women’s economic rights  Linking the comprehensive health insurance to the registration of women working in the informal sector  Legislation of a law that provides a percentage of tax exemption to companies that buy the produce of rural women  Providing tax exemption to women cooperatives  Provision of custom facilitation for institutions which export women’s rural production or which markets it locally  Coordinating with the Ministry of Local Government in the registration of women working in the informal sector

Suggested Objectives and Policiess  Objective: Activating the gender units in ministries in mainstreaming gender concerns and issues in the work of the ministries  Policies: A. Developing the governmental commitment and decisions and ensuring its implementation B. Taking all necessary measures in order to mainstream gender issues and concerns at all stages of the sectoral strategy planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation

Suggested Interventions  Implementation of the cabinet decision on gender units.  Implementation of the cabinet decision on gender responsive budgeting.  Raising the capacity of the gender and the administrative units in ministries on the institutionalization and the mainstreaming of gender.  Providing sex and gender disaggregated data.

Suggested Interventions  Monitoring and the follow-up of the mainstreaming of gender issues and concerns.  Preparation of action plans in the various ministries in order to mainstream gender issues and concerns.