Conflict Resolution agrees to strengthen joint cooperation with the sharia courts in the West Bank
Nablus, Publication and Information Unit:
The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution examined ways of joint cooperation with the family counselling department at the sharia courts in the West Bank governorates. This came during a visit by the director of the family counselling department at the sharia courts, Sulafa Sawalha, to the premises of the Conflict Resolution Center in Nablus governorate, where she was received by the director of the Conflict Resolution Center branch in Nablus, Ahmed Abu Ayyash, and the specialist Wurud Yassin.
At the start of the meeting, Abu Ayyash welcomed the visit of the director of the family counselling department at the sharia courts and reviewed for her the main achievements the Centre has secured in coordination with local organisations and associations in the country's governorates. He pointed out that the Centre carries out a range of projects and programmes supporting a number of groups in the local community, among them women subjected to violence within society and children and workers in the Palestinian territories.
For her part, Sawalha put forward the idea that the Conflict Resolution Center take on the training of staff from the family counselling department at the sharia courts in the West Bank, numbering 24 departments spread across all the governorates, in addition to training sharia judges on a number of matters that develop the courts' performance. She stressed that the opportunity would be a fitting one for Nablus governorate to host the coming trainings, given the constant and notable marginalisation this governorate suffers, and to work on spreading the benefit to all the parties taking part in the training and on widening the communication between the sharia courts and the Centre in the future.
The two sides agreed to take a set of decisions and measures in the coming period by incorporating these ideas into the projects and programmes the Centre carries out in the future, and to make a continuous effort to communicate and coordinate with official institutions in the service of the members of Palestinian society.
It is noted that the Conflict Resolution Center is concerned with communicating with the sharia courts in the country's governorates in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the aim of strengthening the legal, social and psychological capacities of those working in the government bodies and departments at the courts within the local community.
