The project for protecting children from exploitation takes part in a workshop on harassment in Rafah governorate

Rafah, Publication and Information Unit:

The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, within the project for protecting children from sexual harassment and exploitation, took part in a workshop on protecting children from sexual assault at the premises of Al-Quds Open University in Rafah governorate, attended by representatives of the education directorate and the police stations, religious figures and legal experts, with the participation of around 120 university students.

In an address on behalf of the Conflict Resolution Center, the coordinator for the south on the project for protecting children from exploitation, Raed Saada, spoke about the nature of sexual exploitation, its forms and main causes, in addition to the methods of protection. He stressed the importance of sex education for children from an early age in order to give children a proper understanding of sexual matters and to provide self-protection from assault and exploitation.

For their part, the guests taking part in the workshop called for the importance of punishing perpetrators and trying them under the relevant laws, of activating the force of general deterrence and of preventing the problem from spreading, particularly as Islamic law has been careful to set out general rules governing social relations inside and outside the family.

The university students taking part in the workshop pointed to the need to discuss such subjects at universities and other educational institutions in order to increase awareness of this problem and to try to bring this sensitive and important subject to light and examine it through media platforms, particularly as this problem runs up against some mistaken customs and traditions in Palestinian society that help keep it in the dark and keep such sensitive subjects from being addressed.