Egypt – Award & Call for Gender Advocacy & Rights
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: June 19, 2006
Suzanne Mubarak Honored by Global
Summit for Women: ECWR’s Recommendations for Leadership
At last week’s Global Summit for Women (GSW), Suzanne
Mubarak was presented the Global Women’s Leadership Award for her “consistent
and persistent efforts to support the advancement of women in
Egypt.” The theme of the GSW was “redefining leadership,” a
theme equally appropriate to the First Lady’s leadership as President of the
National Council of Women (NCW). We urge Suzanne Mubarak to
redefine her own leadership by committing to undertake real, meaningful work to
advance the status of women in Egypt. Specifically, we
reiterate our calls for reform first publicized after the September 2005
presidential elections and ask Mrs. Mubarak to advocate for these reforms in her
capacity as President of the NCW:
· Urge the President to implement the reform
he already announced to establish a minimum number of seats for women in local
councils by creating practical mechanisms for its application, and by requiring
that at least 1 woman represent each governorate in Egypt.
These women must also play a leading role in the election
campaign.
· Ensure women’s right to vote free of
coercion by the NDP or other parties or interest groups thereby empowering them
to truly participate politically.
· Change the law on political rights and
elections to establish a quota system that will enable the parties to better
support women’s participation.
· Give support to the political parties to
include women as 30% of their total list of nominated candidates.
Parties with a high percentage of women nominated as candidates should be
rewarded.
advocating for these reforms, Suzanne Mubarak will begin to merit the prize she
has been awarded.
Released:
3 Female Activists Arrested May 7, 2006 for Peacefully Demonstrating in Support
of Judges for an Independent Judiciary
Read about ECWR’s
actions in support of their release on our website: www.ecwregypt.org
Recommendations
of Conference on FGM and Early Marriage in East Africa
For eliminating
FGM challenges in the field:
·
Raise awareness on the dangers of FGM at
the community level among men and women
·
Train education, media, governmental and
other professionals to disseminate knowledge
·
Introduce economic alternatives for
circumcisers
·
Use real stories from girls highlighting
success
·
Involve youth in spreading awareness and
organize competitions for children
·
Use ICT, websites, books, etc. that
address these practices as social rather than religious
Legal
mechanisms:
·
Work for a law incriminating FGM
·
Train lawyers, judges and police officers
·
Organize parallel campaigns to address
religious and cultural norms
·
Strengthen the role of civil society
organizations in pursuing and reporting FGM practitioners
·
Launch an international campaign stop FGM
·
Take action on international agreements
and lobby non-member states to ratify them
Religious
discourse and how to influence it:
·
Organize and distribute a statement signed
by religious leaders and public figures
·
Promote partnership between official and
religious institutions and civil society
·
Inform religious leaders about FGM’s
medical risks and convince them to “do no harm”
·
Use advocacy mechanisms, especially the
media
·
Strengthen dialog between religious
leaders, MPs and official institutions
·
Encourage scientists to write more about
FGM
·
Distribute materials in mosques and
churches
www.ecwregypt.org
ECWR Activities
Update
Women in Democratic Transition: ECWR held a Capacity Building for NGOs: At the request of the International Republican Stop Sexual Harassment: East Africa Four Literacies |
ECWR and
partners from 8 African countries met in Nairobi to learn techniques to more
effective reach out to the media and encourage journalists to take an active
role in campaigns for FGM/C abandonment. More information can be found at www.stopfgmc.org.
Join Egyptians:
Support a Free Press & Civil Society in Egypt!
activists who were arrested last month were rewarded in the end with their
release. Their arrests galvanized activists here in Egypt – 24 female lawyers
came to ECWR to volunteer to work on their cases, women’s organizations joined
together and the broader movement in support of all the arrested activists
rallied behind them. However, we cannot stand alone. As we see more and more
arrests of activists and journalists (even as some are released), we need the
support of the international community in pressuring the Egyptian government to
stop arresting its citizens for expressing their constitutional rights to free
speech, freedom of opinion and peaceful assembly and to move forward with
democratic reforms.
Women’s Rights
Misr-Helwan El Zeraay
2nd Floor, Suite 3
Hadayak El Maadi,
Cairo
Egypt
Tel: (20) 2 527.1397
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Categories: Releases