Ref: 04/2007

Date: 20 February  2007

PCHR Organizes a Seminar on Poverty

Participants Calls for Developing Mechanisms to Combat Poverty in Palestine

On Monday, 19 February 2007, PCHR Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Unit (ESC) organized a seminar on poverty in the Gaza Strip. The seminar was held at Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City. Participants in the seminar included academics, development specialists and representatives of ministries and human rights, development, health and relief NGOs. Organizing this seminar comes in the context of efforts made to promote economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian population, especially the right to appropriate living conditions.

The seminar sought to evaluate the Palestinian experience in this field, and domestic policies that protect the poorest and ensure their enjoyment of the right to appropriate living conditions, including appropriate food and housing without any discrimination. 

In his speech, Deputy Director of PCHR Jaber Wishah raised the question about the real reasons for poverty and asked scholars to study the contribution of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people, and temporary job creation programs, maladministration and corruption to the state of poverty. Wishah concluded that any international aid to the Palestinian people that is offered outside the framework of sustainable development is an absurd effort to end poverty.

In his intervention, Dr. Bssam Abu Hashish, a lecturer at the al-Aqsa University, talked about the concepts of poverty, distinguishing 3 meanings of it: social poverty; need; moral poverty. He defined poverty from a human rights perspective, addressing the impacts of human rights violations against the Palestinian people. He emphasized that such violations undermine the human dignity of Palestinians. He further criticized poverty standards used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the differences in poverty statistics among Palestinian governmental and non-governmental organizations, attributing such differences to political considerations.

Yahia al-Ghalban, Director of Poverty Combat Department at the Ministry of Planning, talked about the experience of the National Team for Poverty Combat. He pointed out the poverty in Palestine has both external and internal factors. He further addressed the development of the concept of poverty from fulfilling needs to maintaining human dignity. Al-Ghalban noted that poverty in Palestine is linked with occupation, which has sought to impoverish the Palestinian people. He added that treatment of the poverty problem by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) passed by two staged. The first stage extended from 1994 to 1998, when efforts were focused on development indicators and job creation programs, but poverty did not occupy a major place on the agenda of the PNA.  The second stage began with the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada, when the problem of poverty further increased.        

Dr. Thanaa’ al-Khuzondar, Director of Development Programs at the Ministry of Social Affairs, talked about the project of the social security network to protect the poorest, which was implemented in cooperation with UNRWA and some international and local organizations. She addressed the importance of commitment to education and vaccination to confront malnutrition, anemia, unemployment and poverty. Concerning the problems that faced the project, she pointed out that those problems include the lack of a national database to prevent duality in providing services, the non-commitment of the targeted group to education and vaccination, and funding.

Dr. Mohammed al-Sousi, Director of Islamic Relief in the Gaza Strip, talked about the role of his organization in combating poverty. He pointed out that his organization focuses on small production projects that provide hob opportunities for workers, and also provides other relief services, such as support for university graduates and children, especially poor ones.

‘Omar Sha’ban, a development expert, criticized the programs being implemented to combat poverty in Palestine, considering that most of them focused on relief and contributed to increased poverty. He pointed out that international relief aid provided extensively in the past year proves that the efforts to impoverish the Palestinian people are not separate from what is going on in the international arena.

Khalil Shaheen, Director of ESC, submitted an intervention on international sanctions and their impacts on the OPT, stressing that the sanctions are a form of collective punishment that violate human rights principles. Shaheen asserted that international sanctions have led to a serious deterioration in living conditions of Palestinian civilians, as they have impacted all vital sectors. He concluded his speech with addressing the impacts of the closure of border crossing and Israeli attacks on the infrastructure and strategic projects, which have led to unprecedented deterioration in living conditions.

At the end of the seminar, a number of interventions were submitted, which called for developing mechanisms and plans to combat poverty, and promoting cooperation among various institutions to implement plans to combat poverty and protect the poorest. The participants called also for promoting administrative and financial reform in the PNA to adopt effective policies to combat poverty and develop economic sectors.