The second deputy chairperson of the Shura Council and member of the social, cultural, women and youth affairs’ committee in the Arab Parliament Dr. Bahiyya Al-Jishi emphasized the importance of affording protection to children in the Arab countries.
Referring to this emerging trend risking children specifically wherever there is security or political unrest, said that that the involvement of this segment and essential chunk in political agendas makes them vulnerable to hazards therefore they should not be involved in conflicts and politicization neither their innocence abused nor them being prodded to adopt certain stances and practices beyond their grasp, mental faculties or understanding and which may adversely affect their future or even their lives as a whole.
Dr. Al-Jishi explained during the meeting held by the social, cultural, women and youth affairs’ committee in the Arab Parliament – held in the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt – that prodding children into demonstrations or processions creates a special sort of humanitarian and legal ordeal as to whether such children could be tried as legally-recognized juveniles or allowed to commit explicit crimes, calling for enactment of rules and legislations to remedy this subject and ensure the protection of childhood from violence and from political exploitation particularly in communities inundated by unrest nowadays.
The committee discussed during its meeting on Sunday the holding of a seminar on the role of parliamentarians in the protection of childhood rights in addition to organizing a forum on problems and implications of poverty, wars, conflicts and desertification in the Arab world and on development in addition to bolstering relations between Arab and African parliamentarian women through Memorandum of Understanding between the Arab Parliament and the African Parliament as well as signing Memorandum of Understanding between the Arab Parliament and the UNDP in compliance with the coordination committee’s resolution passed in its last meeting.