Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- The National Human Rights Association will hold a series of training sessions and workshops for teachers across Saudi Arabia to educate them about the field of human rights and how to deal with its concerns, according to its vice-president Muflih al-Qahtani. Plans are also afoot to organize similar sessions for security officers, including prison wardens, police officers and traffic officers.

The first session will take place next week in Jeddah and will feature an introductory speech by Dr. Bandar al Hajjar, head of the Association. In light of the cases of violence against students recently highlighted by the media, the sessions assumed extra importance, he added. They will focus on domestic violence, how to discover if it is taking place and which authorities to address in order to hold those responsible to account. Similar sessions will be held all over the kingdom al Qahtani added.

Both male and female teachers are scheduled to attend the sessions, the vice-president indicated and teach them the tools to discover cases of abuses against students by family members or school staff and how to report them to the authorities.

The Association had already allocated a budget for these sessions, al Qahtani told Asharq al Awsat and no other party would help fund them. He added that the Association aimed to spread the culture of human rights across Saudi society and that ordinary citizens and officials had little awareness about their rights and how to protect them.

“Some officials do not implement regulations, unaware that this represents a violation of human rights. Many of those of suffer do not know the correct method to follow in order to demand their rights.”

The Association’s latest project comes in the wake of an increase in domestic violence cases, especially amongst children. A debate has also been taking place in the Saudi media about abuse in the family and pictures published on the issue created controversy.