Ramallah – The Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) in partnership with the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) and funded by the Italian Cooperation, held a meeting at PWWSD’s Ramallah headquarters to launch the project “Establishing Legal and Psychological Counseling Units for Battered Women ”. The event was attended by PWWSD general director, Amal Khreisheh; head of the Women and Gender Unit at MoSD, Basma Subuh; head of the Protection Unit at the ministry, Nawal Tamimi; and PWWSD Counselling Program director, Futna Khalifa. Other attendees included a number of lawyers and psychosocial counselors who will be providing legal services and psychological consultations to battered women through the project.
Head of the Women and Gender Unit at MoSD, Basma Subuh noted that the ministry is leading the domain of social protection for marginalized groups including women. The ministry does this by providing protection, care, and shelter services to battered women. The idea to establish psychological and legal counseling units came in cooperation with PWWSD to provide individual, group, and societal counseling services, in addition to legal consultation and litigation services for women experiencing gender-based violence. Subuh added that from the ministry’s focus on partnership and integration with civil society, comes the inclination to work with PWWSD to establish these units, in order to serve women, end violence against them, spread awareness, and achieve social justice.
PWWSD general director, Amal Khreisheh talked about discrimination against women that still remains in personal status and penal code legislation. Therefore, having these psychological and legal counseling units is essential for alleviating the impact of unjust laws, and giving women access to justice, in addition to extracting administrative tools that relieve some of the burdens of discrimination through the lawyers’ experiences in court. Khreisheh added that this partnership with MoSD is of extreme importance, as PWWSD and MoSD are both members of the Advisory Committee on Safe Houses.
Lawyer, Entisar S’eifan said that legal consultation and litigation will be provided in court if needed, including regular and Sharia courts, in addition to raising awareness on the rights of battered women. Lawyer, Maysoun Halabiya added that women seeking the counseling units will be provided with legal consultations, and offered representation in court. The units will also coordinate and network with technical support experts at the Advisory Committee on Combating Violence Against Women.