Contractors Union participates in workshop on arbitration and alternative dispute resolution methods

The Palestinian Contractors Union in Gaza participated in a workshop on arbitration and alternative dispute resolution methods, in cooperation with the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Commercial Arbitration Center. The workshop aimed to introduce contractors to dispute resolution mechanisms in construction contracts and enhance their legal capacity to handle them. The union's executive director emphasized the importance of raising legal and contractual standards and revealed aspirations to establish a specialized center for engineering arbitration.

The Palestinian Contractors Union in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Commercial Arbitration Center, participated in a specialized workshop titled "Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods," with the participation of several members of the union's general assembly. The workshop aimed to introduce contractors to dispute resolution mechanisms related to construction contracts and enhance their ability to deal with them according to appropriate legal and contractual frameworks. The union's executive director, Engineer Ahmed Abu Ras, praised the efforts of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Commercial Arbitration Center in organizing the workshop, stressing the importance of raising the legal and contractual knowledge of contractors, especially given the nature of the construction sector and the claims and disputes that may arise from delays, changes in work, payments, or emergency circumstances. Abu Ras pointed to the importance of adopting effective means of negotiation, mediation, conciliation, technical expertise, and arbitration. He revealed the union's aspiration to establish a specialized center for engineering arbitration and construction dispute resolution, in integration with the Commercial Arbitration Center. He added that the reconstruction phase in the Gaza Strip imposes the need to develop contractual practices, improve contract and claims management, and accelerate dispute resolution procedures. The workshop presenters reviewed the concept of arbitration, its bodies and advantages, the specifications of an arbitrator, the arbitration clause and agreement, as well as mediation, conciliation, and negotiation, and procedures for enforcing and challenging arbitration awards. The workshop included discussions on the most prominent practical problems facing contractors in construction contracts and ways to address them.