Conflict Resolution Center organises a workshop to activate a juvenile police force in the Gaza governorates

Khan Younis, Publication and Information Unit:
The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution organised a workshop entitled "Correcting the legal situation of children in conflict with the law: activating a juvenile police force", attended by officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs and representatives of the police stations in the southern governorates, with the participation of a number of reconciliation figures, civil society organisations and university students, in the Royal Palace hall in Khan Younis governorate.

At the start of the meeting, the head of the legal unit at the Conflict Resolution Center, Younis Al-Tahrawi, stressed that his Centre is keen to provide the best psychological, social and legal services to juveniles, since they are victims of experiences and social situations that have affected them negatively. He pointed out that the Centre communicates with the Al-Rabee institution for social care and the competent ministries with the aim of providing a safe environment for children in conflict with the law and providing them with legal aid and sound procedures in the future.

For his part, the head of the social defence department at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ismail Tanira, said the philosophy of the ministry and its departments rests on keeping juveniles away from the general prisons and trying to reform them, giving them social behaviours and reintegrating them properly into society. He added: "The main aim of the social defence department is to keep the juvenile away from the circle of problems and delinquency and to ask the judiciary to work on taking the legal measures relating to them and to correct them so as to improve their behaviour."

For his part, the probation officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Saleh Abu Zeid, explained that the officer's role is linked to the police, the courts, the prosecution and the judges, providing those charged with law enforcement with the juvenile's file as initial information for investigating them and providing the juvenile with the protection required through legal representation and swift procedures away from adult defendants. He explained that the Palestinian legislator needs to enact laws consistent with modern criminal policies in order to ensure greater protection to support juveniles, and to establish a specialised police force in civilian clothes and unarmed, to attend to the state of mind of accused children.

For their part, the legal officer Captain Hamouda Zaarab of the Al-Qarara police and First Lieutenant Hossam Kilab, deputy chief of the Khan Younis police, called for the need to prepare and qualify police staff able to deal with juveniles and to provide the resources needed to prevent juveniles mixing with adults. They added: "We need new means to be provided for the police, from cars for detaining children to non-lethal weapons such as electric stun guns, and rooms dedicated to juveniles serving long sentences inside prison, away from adults."

The participants in the workshop called for working to activate the role of civil society organisations and to provide material support for holding workshops for juveniles, to provide school materials such as books and teaching rooms dedicated to juveniles inside the Al-Rabee institution, and to work on activating the role of the visual, audio and electronic media on the juveniles' cause effectively and in a way that influences public opinion.