Rule of Law

The program aims, as the observatory is a house of expertise in elections, to lead the intervention of Palestinian civil society institutions in ensuring the periodicity, democracy, and integrity of elections at the national, local, and community levels.

Among the activities

1. Electoral reform, by taking the initiative to lead the efforts of civil society organizations to introduce legal reforms based on continuous evaluation with the aim of drawing lessons and presenting proposals that would improve the electoral process.
2. Studying electoral experiences and their impact on different societal groups, such as women, youth, people with disabilities, and minorities, by delving into everything that affects electoral processes with the aim of providing specific recommendations for development.
3. Training includes two types:  
   * Training civil society organizations wishing to work on interfering in electoral processes, whether in areas of awareness or oversight

   * Training local observers at two levels (long-term observers and short-term observers).

4. Building the capacities of parties and candidates for elections at the national and local levels.

Interventions led by the Observatory since its establishment in 2006

1. Studying the General Elections Law No. 1 of 2007 and presenting proposals for its development regarding the participation of youth and women in candidacy.
2. A campaign to set a date for the second round of local elections 2008-2012, especially since the legal session of the councils ended in mid-December 2008.
3. The campaign for the 2009 general elections has continued, since the Arab Republic of Egypt presented the reconciliation plan between the Fatah and Hamas movements, in which the general elections were the second item agreed upon by the factions. The campaign continued to keep the general elections as a cornerstone of the democratic reconciliation process in Palestine and intensified in 2014 coinciding with the government. National reconciliation.
4. A position paper on the Palestinian National Council elections reviews the expected scenarios and links them to the required technical capabilities and the challenges they face.
5. To enhance the democracy and integrity of the 2012 local elections, the Observatory took the initiative to lead the efforts of civil society organizations through the National Election Monitoring Committee and issue a detailed report on the electoral process. A community awareness campaign targeted most of the gatherings that were not decided by acclamation, focusing on young people, new voters, and women. And continuing the campaign to ensure that local elections are held in the Gaza Strip, which was achieved in 2016 when the de facto government in Gaza agreed that Gaza would be part of the third round of local elections, but unfortunately It was disrupted by the decisions of the courts of first instance and then the High Court of Justice in the West Bank.
6. Ensuring the democracy and integrity of the 2017 local elections, which came after the 2016 postponement as a result of the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. The law included a single amendment, which was one of the most important recommendations of the Observatory in the 2012 elections, to create a specialized court for local elections similar to the general elections, which was done before the 2017 elections. But the Gaza government refused. The elections were held in Gaza and were subsequently held in the West Bank. The role of the Observatory revolved around two aspects. The first was to lead the efforts of civil society institutions in monitoring the overall electoral process and to study the behavior of voters. The second aspect included training young men and women candidates for the elections, in addition to targeting them with awareness-raising to raise the rate of participation in the elections, especially those areas that witnessed... Low participation rates.
7. In-depth research on the 2017 electoral experience and the factors affecting it, focusing on recommendation because it reduces participation rates and deprives citizens of choosing who will represent them in local councils. The impact of the division on participation rates and other factors such as the electoral system, the influence of families, the impact of the absence of national elections on participation rates and other factors. Then, a national workshop was held to discuss introducing amendments to the national elections law, with the participation of all national parties.
8. The national campaign for the general elections, which culminated in the 2019 proposal to hold the elections back-to-back to resolve problems related to trust between the main political parties, and formed the basis of consensus, was led by the Central Elections Committee and later resulted in an agreement to hold the elections in 2021, but they were postponed due to the occupation preventing them from being held in Jerusalem.
9. The campaign to hold and monitor the 2021 local elections and intervene in educating and motivating voters to participate. Training members on issues related to the work of local councils after the elections, with the aim of enhancing their positive participation in the leadership of local councils.
10. A campaign to develop student participation in developing the election system for student councils and motivating independent student bodies to monitor the electoral process.