The conclusion of an extra-curricular course- Violence against Women: Incorporating Rights Concepts in the work of Prosecutors

April 25, 2017

 

Within a joint project with the UNWOMEN, the Institute of Women’s Studies concluded an extra-curricular course “Violence against Women: Incorporating Rights Concepts in the work of Prosecutors” that targeted 26 public prosecutors, members of “family protection from violence prosecution”. The course was held between 20/9/2016 and 23/4/2017 with (85) training hours.

The graduation ceremony was held in the presence of the director of the Institute of Women's Studies, Eileen Kuttab, Vice President for Community Affairs Dr. Assem Khalil, assistant attorney-general Ashraf Erekat, Head of the Family Protection against Violence Prosecution, Ms. Darine Salhia, Women's Activist Advocate Halima Abu Solb, and Ms. Huda Rouhana, UN Gender Specialist.

The course aimed at understanding the concept of violence from a gender perspective within the Palestinian context in relation to occupation-militarism, patriarchy, and economic exploitation. The course tackled pleading in issues of violence against women in local courts, where participants were trained to prepare the pleadings before the courts, using the constitutional tools and the international agreements that the State of Palestine has committed to, and the mechanism of linking these agreements to the Basic Law and promoting the concept of human dignity in litigation. The participants were introduced to concepts of gender and violence against women in the social and political context and understanding power relations and social structures and their impact on women's access to justice in Palestine. On the other hand, training has been provided in the techniques of dealing with women and children, victims of sexual abuse, and the most important legal problems that members of the Public Prosecution face in the process of prosecuting of offenders in terms of condemnation and the severity of punishment.

The training team included Dr. Lena Meari, faculty member at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences & at the Institute of Women Studies; Dr. Said Shehadeh, faculty member at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences; the lawyer Halemah Abu Solb; the lawyer Ashraf Abu Hayyah; the lawyer Sawsan Zaher, director of the Economic and Social Rights Unit at Adalah organization; and the lawyer Hassan Jabareen, founder of Adalah and general director and the director of the Civil and Political Rights Unit at Adalah organization.