On Sunday 17/08/1435 AH – 15/06/2014 AD,  the National Society for Human Rights, in cooperation with the British Embassy in Riyadh, has held a panel discussion on “the sexual violence combat initiative in conflict zones”. This panel discussion is considered a participation from the Society in the initiatives’ follow-up activities that have been held recently in London.

During the panel discussion, a number of topics have been discussed and most notably the issue of fighting the sexual violence in conflict zones, and to what extent the political commitments have been turned into action process in addition to the challenges that are  facing the governments, civil society and the international organizations in order to   confront this issue.

Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the initiative has been launched by the British Foreign Minister, Mr. William Hague, and the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the United Nations, Ms. Angelina Jolie in May 2012 AD. In addition, this initiative has resulted in issuing the “declaration of commitment to end sexual violence in conflict zones” which was launched by the United Nations in September 2013 and ratified by 140 countries so far including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was attended, from the Society’s side, by His Excellency the Chairman of the Society, Dr. Mufleh bin Rabiean Qahtani, the Secretary-General–designate, Mr Khalid bin Abdul Rahman al-Fakhiri and the members Dr. Mohammed Fadel, Dr. Nora Al Ajlan, Dr. Ibrahim Al Qaeed, and Ibrahim Suleiman. The meeting was also attended by a number of officials: Mr. Julian Riley, the British Deputy Ambassador, Mr. Stephen, the second Secretary at the British Embassy, ​​Mr. Jose Maria, the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of  Spain, Mr. Carlos Olifra, Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of Portuguese, Ms. Seba Saeed, the General diplomate official, Mr. Salah Taha, the media and political official, and Ms. Langes Julian, the trade, economic and culural relations official in the Embassy of Sweden.