The Independent Commission for Human Rights engaging in intercourse with a girl under the age of 15 years, indecent assault by violence or threat, indecent assault without violence, and the crime of a guardian committing intercourse with a girl under aged 18 who is under his guardianship. This section shall discuss the crime of incest within national legislation to highlight the legislative gaps of the laws in force within Palestine with a view to develop a legislative frame in compliance with the principles of human rights and human dignity of women. 1. The Concept of Incest under Various Laws The meaning of incest according to Lisan al-Arab dictionary is debauchery, and adultery committed without contract29. Incest is defined as a banned sexual relationship between two persons of blood relationship resulting in indecency, according to religious and cultural standards, depending on the degree and type of kinship. Such a crime dismisses the roles of paternity, maternity, fraternity and other forms of kinship on the maternal and paternal sides30. This crime lies within criminal and social taboos with adverse consequences on the victim. The consequences could stop the victim’s psychological, emotional and sexual growth. It is seen as an old pan-cultural plight, even older than the prohibitions which have been put on it. Incest was banned under the universal institutional law31. Most human societies regulated the provisions and legislations which organize permanent and temporary sexual relationships. They prohibit and punish marriage of a father to his daughter, brother to his sister, or a son to his mother. Marriage of a person beyond these degrees of blood relationship was also regulated by laws and legislations banning some and allowing others. For example, they prohibit a stepfather from marrying his stepdaughter, even though they have no blood relationship32 The danger of incest lies with the fact that the offender is expected to be a guardian or protector of the victim and a source of comfort and assurance for her. For this reason, it is considered a criminal act punishable by most international laws. Jurisprudence defines incest as adultery among people of close blood relationship or fornication of people of blood relationship. Regardless of what names or terms it has, they denote full sexual intercourse between a man and a woman of blood relationship, an actual or legal relationship where the man committing sexual intercourse with the woman is her 29 Lisan alArab;electronic copy on the following web site. http://www.alwaraq.net/index3.htm?u=http:// www.alwaraq.net/Core/Body.jsp?option=2 30 Al-Saed, 1993. Crimes against General Ethics and Family, comparative analytical study p. 266. 31 . Mary Shaharstan: man between biological development and cultural adaptation. Article published on the page of the researchers: date of entry 2-2-2012. (albahethon.com\print_details.php. 32 A survey was made in France for the first time on the number of people subjected to this violation (Disclosing a plight of public health). There is also a parliamentary report suggesting amendment of the penal code. It is a precedent as there is no survey discussing incest in France. The Victims Association justifies its action by claiming that it intends to break the taboo by publishing such findings about the victims of this sexual arbitrariness. The findings show that 3% of the French were victims of incest. The investigative survey was conducted on a national category of 931 people upon the request of Association of Incest Victims International (AIVI). Two million people were subjected to this violation according to the survey. The chairwoman of AIVI believes that one person out of ten has been subjected to this violation. The medical doctor at the Sexual Violation Minor Victims Center in Trousseau Hospital said “we want to prove that incest doesn’t only happen in the outlying French farms; it is a public health plight occurring in the different sectors; it isn’t limited to a special milieu or to deprived families’. Documented in Shaharstan, 2012. 26