'Support Life after Torture Workshop'

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme organized on June 30, 2020 a workshop on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The workshop was held under the rubric ‘Our Humanity is Sublimed without Torture’.

A group of leading organisations in the field of mental health and human rights participated in the workshop which was held online, opening the space for discussing a number of issues.

At the beginning of the workshop, Dr Yasser Abu Jamei, the General Director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, presented a factsheet about the factors that have increased mental health challenges in the Gaza Strip and the main challenges that face MH providers.

Then the floor was opened for the representatives of the participating orgnisations to present.

Mr Saber Al-Neirab, Office Director of the High Commissioner for Human Rights made a presentation about the psychological consequences of torture; while Mr Child Ahmad Al-Ghoul, Head of the Legal Department at the Independent Palestinian Commission for Human Rights, made a presentation about torture and abuse.

 'The Reality of Torture in Women Prison' was presented by Amal Nofal, Director of Women Correction and Rehabilitation Centre, and finally 'the mechanisms of rehabilitating the victims of torture and their positive impact on the reintegration process', presented by Khitam Al-Sahar, Head of College of Psychology at the Islamic University.

At the end of the workshop a set of recommendations were produced by the speakers. These included:

1.   The need to establish rules and mechanisms to enforce the international anti-torture laws, to which Palestine is a signatory;

2.    Providing integrated services for the rehabilitation of victims of torture;

3.   activating the social role in supporting the victims of torture, considering the vitality of such a sole in healing and rehabilitation of the victims;

4.   all the stakeholders and the concened sides need to exert concerted effort to support the victims of torture on a purely humane basis.