More than 50 selected legal personnel from Palestinian Authority institutions concluded this week a three-day training session on legislative drafting and on using a new template form developed by the Council of Ministers (CoM) in order to structure and streamline the process for developing the PA legislative priorities.

After the conclusion of the training, the participants are expected to further enhance their know-how in producing a well-tailored legislative template.

The trainer, Dr. Fayez Bkirat., provided the attendees with necessary skills to develop legislative input to the Council of Ministers indicating clearly the legislative interventions along with the essential legislative documents, including the legislative explanatory memorandum and the impact assessment document.

The Palestinian parliament ceased to function in 2007 due to internal Palestinian divisions.

Dr. Amjed Ghanem, the Secretary General of Council of Ministers, urged the participants to present their legislative priorities to the CoM. “Using the legislative template will help us determine the government’s legislative priorities,” he said before distributing certificates, together with Nataliya Apostolova, Head of EUPOL COPPS Mission.

“The Mission has seen the step of adopting this new template as a very important pillar towards standardizing the law-making process in Palestine. However, there are still more steps that need to be taken by the Council of Ministers in order to fully achieve a transparent, inclusive and participatory legislative process,” Apostolova said at the closing ceremony.  

Legislative drafters are responsible for producing legislation which promotes democratic and transparent governance and enhance the rule of law.