The National Council for Women (NCW), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) through the Council’s Violence Against Women Unit, organized a virtual session of health service providers on the “Legislative Framework for Crimes against Women and the Act on Female Genital Mutilation”.
The session featured 135 doctors and nurses from university hospitals and primary care units of the Ministry of Health and Population and the managers of the Safe Women’s Units, in the presence of the Director of the Women’s Complaints Bureau of the Council, the President of the Court of Appeal, the Legal Counsel of the Council’s Violence against Women Unit and Dr. Amal Philippe, Health Adviser.
Amal Tawfiq, Director of the Women’s Complaints Bureau, noted the importance of raising awareness among health service providers of laws on crimes of violence against women in order to activate their contribution to the preservation of victims’ rights “, noting the significant role played by the health sector in combating violence against women as one of the main entry points for women and girls when exposed to any form of violence, and the role of doctors and nurses in receiving and dealing with them.
Dr. Amal Philip stressed the importance of raising legal awareness of the medical team as part of the basic training that the NCW is keen to implement to guide women who are subjected to violence on the right track according to each case.
Counsellor Ahmed El Najjar provided the international and national definition of violence against women and the substantive and procedural framework for the protection of women in the Constitution, the criminal legislative framework for the most important crimes of violence against women and the female circumcision law, and the images of the criminal contribution to this crime, as well as the doctor’s duties in reporting crimes and the limits of liability.
