Palestinian Children's Day – (GCMHP) participates In International Webinar ‘Not Another Child, Not Another Hospital’

 On Sunday, 6 April 2025, the Global Mental Health Network-Palestine, in partnership with Physicians Against Genocide, held an online webinar entitled "Not Another Child, Not Another Hospital". The session was attended by 220 participants who represented several international and Palestinian organisations, and focused on the rights of children in Palestine and the reality of their suffering in light of the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip.

In his word as the keynote speaker at the seminar, Dr. Yasser Abu Jamea, Director General GCMHP, gave a detailed explanation of the reality of mental health in the Gaza Strip, especially children and the conditions they are going through, including loss of parents, disabilities, continuous displacement, starvation and deprivation of education, in addition to the lack of normal social order resulting from the war and the resulting deep damage to the child's physical and psychological development.

A number of experts and doctors participated in the seminar, including:

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, British-Palestinian war surgeon and frontline witness to the genocide in Gaza;

Lawyer Sahar Francis, Palestinian human rights defender and Director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association;

Dr. Nidal Jboor, Internist and Co-Founder of Doctors Against Genocide;

Dr. Lama Khouri, Psychoanalyst and Co-Founder of Palestine Global-Mental Health Network;

Dr. Karameh Hawash Kuemmerle, Pediatric Neurologist and Co-Founder of Doctors Against Genocide;

Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of physical and mental health;

Dr. Asfia Qaadir, A board-certified Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist. Currently practicing in Minnesota with a focus on the intersections of child development, transgenerational trauma, and BIPOC mental health.  She is a member of Doctors Against Genocide and Healthcare Workers for Palestine;

Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Palestinian feminist scholar, Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London; Co-founder of the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network and theorist of the concept of “Unchilding”—the systematic erasure of Palestinian childhood through violence, surveillance, and dehumanization;

They all stressed the importance of the role of mental health workers, whether psychiatrists, social workers or paediatricians, in continuously reporting what is happening to children in the Gaza Strip and defending them on all local and international occasions and events.

At the end of the seminar, a set of steps that can be taken by international bodies working in the health, human rights and children's sectors were discussed.