7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media delivered its Digital Rights Defenders training February 14-15, 2020. The goal of the training was to enhance Palestinian youth’s capacity to advocate for their digital rights to states and companies in Palestine and around the world. In total, 20 participants from different areas of Palestine attended and participated during the two-day workshop.

The training covered local and international digital rights issues including Israel’s control of the ICT infrastructure, the PA’s Cybercrimes Law and violations of Palestinians rights being perpetrated by tech companies. The training included local experts including Dr. Isam Abdeen, Nadim Nashif, Alison Carmel, Hussein Hammad, and Najwan Berekdar. The training included both theoretical and practical training to help participants start to develop knowledge about digital rights and to build advocacy skills.

As one participant said, “The training was very special, the subject is new and important to every person. I gained very good knowledge in the field of digital rights in terms of the concept and its relation to human rights”. Participants were chosen based on their experience with advocacy and interest in digital rights. Several participants came from journalism, politics, and computer science backgrounds, which led to many diverse and engaging discussions throughout the weekend.

This training is part of 7amleh’s Advocacy program in the development of the digital rights advocacy work in Palestine. This increased advocacy will also support a more general global raising of awareness that will contribute to shifting towards a more free and open digital space, within Palestine as well as globally.