Rule of Law (Sawasya II) Palestine 2019-2023

Results

Digitalization advanced in several areas with direct impact for citizens, including for example the launch of complaint mechanisms at the level of the Palestinian Civil Police, High Judicial Council and Attorney Generals Office allowing citizens to report any alleged wrongdoing or misconduct by the police, judges, or prosecutors using their laptop or mobile phone. At the level of family courts, enforcement orders are now automatically transferred from the courts to the banks, thereby eliminating critical barriers for vulnerable women to access alimony. Furthermore, justice clients can now file enforcement motions online, which is contributing to reducing transactional costs for citizens and improving access to justice. Emphasis was also placed on enhancing accountability and access to justice in places of detention with the further operationalization of the Nelson Mandela and Bangkok rules by the Attorney Generals Office Human Rights Unit that introduce minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners, including women offenders. As a key policy conduit for the mainstreaming of human rights obligations, standard operating procedures for the Attorney Generals Office Human Rights Unit were also developed this year as well as for the investigation of torture cases. More than 1,549 criminal sessions in courts were monitored by the coalition of civil society actors and a civic-led advocacy strategy for advancing justice reform was produced. Work was also invested to strengthen citizens equal access to legal information with the uploading of 4,780 new judgements to the automated al-Muqtafi database, including 1,000 rulings by family courts. Improved institutional processes with the further development of a planning and project management community of practice across the justice sector, including through the standardization of training modalities by the Palestinian National School of Administration. M&E processes in the Ministry of Justice and the High Judicial Council were further digitalized, allowing for automated reporting against sectoral but also national policy targets in a manner that can inform pivotal governmental dialogue. The Ministry of Justice human resource management system was also automated, thereby freeing up critical staff at the level of the institution. Emphasis was also placed on improving jurisprudential consistency and responsiveness with the operationalization of technical offices in the Court of Cassation and appeal courts as well as the finalization of violence against women (VAW) instructive guidelines. In line with this, registered levels of prosecution and adjudication of cases involving violence against women continued to be on the rise. A 41 per cent and 39 per cent increase in the number of VAW cases transferred to the courts and perpetrators convicted was reported when compared to 2020. Furthermore, the establishment of two additional One-Stop Centers in the underserved areas of Hebron and Nablus was initiated along with the equipment of a specialized court to better respond to the multi-sectoral needs of women victims of violence. In relation to child justice, an increase of respectively 28 and 35 per cent in the number of children that benefitted from diversionary and non-custodial measures took place in the reporting period as compared to pre-COVID levels. It builds on the identification of six centers for the provision of alternatives to detention this year and on the further operationalization of the mediation guidelines by the Attorney Generals Office and the Ministry of Social Development. The continuous enhancement of the Mizan II case management system is also now allowing juvenile prosecutors and child protection counselors to access cases of children at risk of delinquency. This is in congruence with the development of a code of conduct for judicial staff on principles of child protection and international standards. The first national supervision diploma was also completed by protection counselors and police officers. Ecclesiastical courts and the Supreme Judge Department took critical steps towards the institutionalization of legal aid mechanisms in front of family courts. Such work is paralleled by a 23 per cent increase in public awareness on the existence of specialized legal aid services and a 95 per cent in satisfaction with state-sponsored representation when compared to 2018. To ensure sustainability on this front, clinical education programmes continued to be rolled out, focusing on socially responsible, gender transformative and practice-oriented lawyering. This was complemented by access for 31 Gaza law students (52 per cent women) to scholarships for qualifying traineeship in specialized CSOs. Meanwhile, 15,565 (73 per cent women, 8 per cent boys, 0.5 per cent girls) vulnerable Palestinians accessed legal aid services across the oPt. Furthermore, 13,184 (68 per cent women, 5 per cent boys, 2 per cent girls) accessed in-person legal awareness, and more than 498,300 had access to online content.