March 15, 2018

The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) and the Women’s Affairs Center (WAC) jointly organized a workshop today to discuss the “Draft Law on Family Protection from Violence.” The workshop aimed to gather observations and recommendations on the draft from institutions and lawyers for submission to the Council of Ministers prior to the law’s ratification.

Ms. Amal Siam, Director of the Women’s Affairs Center, welcomed the attendees, emphasizing “the importance of this workshop in discussing the draft law and the observations put forward by us, to discuss them and take all the recommendations from institutions and lawyers.” Siam noted that this law is the result of the Palestinian feminist movement’s efforts, stemming from the increasing and diversifying forms of violence suffered by women. Based on the conviction that existing punitive legislation in Palestine is inadequate to curb violence against women, she saw the necessity of a law to eliminate violence and presented their cumulative efforts to finalize a draft law to protect women from violence.

For her part, Ms. Zeinab Al-Ghunaimi, Director of The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP), stated that this law was presented by the Legislation Harmonization Committee, in accordance with the State of Palestine’s obligations to harmonize legislation in line with its accession to several international conventions, most notably the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and international law regarding confronting violence against women. She added that the law addresses domestic violence issues from a preventive and therapeutic perspective, as the laws in force in Palestine focus on punishment and penalties for the committed act, which often occur after the violence has taken place.

Al-Ghunaimi clarified that the reasons for working on this law are to combat violence, promote civil peace based on the principles of tolerance and effective dialogue between all members and components of Palestinian society, achieve justice within an integrated cycle for prevention, prosecution, protection, criminalization, provision of necessary services, and redress of harm, protect women from all forms of violence, and eliminate domestic violence.

Al-Ghunaimi presented all the articles of the draft law, along with her observations, and requested the attendees to submit their recommendations within the next two days, for submission to the relevant committee.