Conflict Resolution Center opens a training course to develop the work of the family counselling departments at the sharia courts in the Gaza governorates

The project for providing legal assistance to women in need (NRC) at the Conflict Resolution Center opened a training course entitled "Developing the capacities of those working in the family counselling department at the sharia courts", held at the La Terrina restaurant in Gaza City over 30 training hours.

Taking part in the opening ceremony was Sheikh Dr. Hassan Al-Joujou, head of the Supreme Council of the Sharia Judiciary, who stressed that the sharia courts are an educational and judicial instrument concerned with engaging with civil society organisations in order to preserve the social fabric of society. He noted that the Conflict Resolution Center was the first to establish the family meeting points in the Gaza Strip and to change the prevailing pattern of family visits taking place at police stations.

The head of the Supreme Council of the Sharia Judiciary stressed the need to develop the staff working in the family counselling departments at the courts in order to enable them to carry out their tasks in resolving family disputes within the local community. He called for intensifying training courses for young couples and focusing on preventive education in how to manage family disputes and crises.

For his part, Dr. Abdel Khaleq Al-Buhaisi, director of the family counselling department at the sharia courts, explained that the joint and continuous coordination with the Conflict Resolution Center helps to strengthen the mutual partnership and the keenness to provide better assistance and services to the Palestinian public. He added: "Our religious and national duty requires us to work on consolidating community relations, and particularly family relations, in coordination with civil and national organisations."

For his part, Iyad Abu Hjair, director of the Conflict Resolution Center's Gaza branch, valued the continuing efforts of the sharia courts in developing the capacities of their staff and their continuous coordination with civil society organisations. He presented a statistic showing a 10% rise in the divorce rate among couples in the local community, and said that social responsibility requires working to cut this rate by half as quickly as possible.

For his part, the coordinator of the project for providing legal assistance to women in need, Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi, confirmed that the project team at the Conflict Resolution Center, in coordination with the family counselling department at the sharia courts, will be keen to refine the skills of those working in the family counselling departments in the Gaza governorates, in order to increase the level of legal and social education and awareness at the hands of specialist trainers during the training course.

The Conflict Resolution Center agreed with the Supreme Judicial Council to sign a joint memorandum of understanding in the near future to identify the basic needs that must be met in order to develop more of the staff working at the sharia courts, as well as to increase the number of meetings, training courses and dialogue sessions with the aim of strengthening social cohesion in the coming period.