Lebanon – Legalizing the Protection Against Family Violence
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: June 26, 2006
LEBANON: KAFA (Enough) VIOLENCE &
EXPLOITATION
Regional
Meeting
“Legalizing
The Protection Against Family Violence”
Lebanon, 22-23 June 2006
Final
Statement
“Legalizing
the Protection Against Family Violence”
was the title of a regional meeting that was organized by KAFA (enough)
Violence & Exploitation-Lebanon, and that summoned 20 NGO activists from
11 Arab countries, in addition to representatives of national and international
NGOs.
The
meeting was held on the 22nd and 23rd of June
2006
in
aimed at discussing the necessity of
establishing
a law on domestic violence,
which
until now, does not exist in any Arab country.
At
the end of the meeting, the covenants issued
the
following final statement:
Arab
societies are still dominated by patriarchal authoritative systems that give
privileges to male dominance over all aspects of life.
The
national constitutions of all Arab countries state that women and men are
considered equal in front of the law. In spite of that, none of the countries
are working to attain this equality. None of the states have abided by the
international human right treaties that they have signed, especially the CEDAW
convention. Besides, the vast majority put reservations on this treaty, while
some did not sign it yet.
Women
in Arab countries are still suffering from violations to their basic human
rights, especially from acts of violence perpetrated on them which, in some
cases, lead to their death.
Until
now, the vast majority of Arab countries did not take any measure to confront
these acts of violence. Instead, some of these acts are legalized or even
considered as “holistic”, especially those inflicted, directly or indirectly, by
the personal status codes. Women “femicide” under the pretext of “honor crimes”
are flagrant examples.
Arab
governments are still captured by the traditional culture which consider the
family as a private property of men, giving them the privilege of being the
“head of the family’ and wide space of freedom to violate the basic human rights
of family members, including women and children. Under the pretext of “home
privacy”, or “intimate relationship”, governments remain standstill towards any
human right violation of the family members.
In
consideration of all the above, the participants in the regional meeting agreed
on:
1-
Calling
upon all government who signed and ratified the international human rights
treaties, including the CEDAW and its optional protocols, to lift the
reservations on the CEDAW and act to amend their national laws according to
those treaties.
2-
Calling
upon all governments to confront the multi faceted forms of violence against
women, especially those that take place within the family. VAW is one of the
main obstacles that deprive women from attaining their basic human rights, and
one of the flagrant violations to those rights.
3-
Confronting
violence against women necessitates from the governments their acknowledgment of
its existence as a societal problem that hinders the development process.
Consequently, it is a necessity to reconsider the legislative system in each
Arab country, to ensure that the law plays a preventive role against acts of
violence against women within the family.
4-
Calling
upon governments to set special legislations for protecting women against family
violence, due to the fact that domestic violence against women is the most
widespread form of violence against women, while at the same time it is still
privatized and kept within family boundaries.
5-
Enhancing
the work on both the regional and local levels in order to establish special
legislations on family violence, and continuing the coordination among each
other, until this special law is adopted by the Arab governments.
6-
Calling
upon civil society organizations and official entities to help in elaborating a
special legislation on family violence that would fulfill the ambitions and
hopes of women in Arab countries.
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