You can read the full post in Arabic about the Lebanese Parliament vote to cancel Article 562 of the Penal Code that offers reduced sentences for “honor” crimes.

The Committee for Administration and Justice, headed by MP Robert Ghanem, had raised the recommendation to cancel Article 562 back on May 16, 2011. The matter was put to a vote as the last point on the agenda of the legislative parliamentary meeting yesterday. Some MPs argued against the annulment: Butros Harb, Samir El Jisr, Imad El Hout, and Ali Fayyad. Others argued for removing Article 562: Sami Gemayel, Elie Keyrouz, Antoine Zahra, Marwan Hamadeh, Ghassan Moukhaiber, and Elie Aoun, and their arguments were good.

The vote finally passed FOR and the article should now officially be removed from the Penal Code. I could not find information on the voting numbers – I will post those when I do. Nayla Tueni and Gilberte Zouein (who represent half of the women in parliament since we only have four) were not even present.

It is important to note that Saada Allaw from AsSafir had written an article objecting to the annulment of Article 562 without looking at Article 252 as well. Article 252 allows for reduced sentences on crimes committed in a state of rage. She argues that many judges in Lebanon would frame “honor” crimes as ones committed in a state of rage and criminals could still benefit from reduced sentences. Although she is right, I don’t think we could have a Penal Code that does not distinguish between pre-meditated murder and second degree murder. So I am not sure what the solution would be – perhaps to forbid its use when it comes to gender-based violence. Thoughts?

The important thing now is that this small and long overdue victory does not take our eyes off the crucial battle of sending the bill to Protect Women from Family Violence into Parliament for a vote. It is right now still in the Special Committee and might be vetoed through the pressure of religious groups. “Honor” crimes are a direct result of the vicious cycle of gender-based violence going unpunished and remaining a taboo in Lebanon. So if we’ve agreed to cancel those, we might as well install protective laws against violence all together.

In all cases, congratulations to the women’s movement on this victory

Al Jazeera Stream hosted a debate on the proposed Law to Protect Women from Family Violence last night. I was arguing for and Sounay Nouh of the Women’s Committee to Protect the Family was arguing against. Discussion focused on marital rape, culture, child protection, and the current legal protection mechanisms.

Photo by @joellehatem - click on it for the full album

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday at the demonstration to Protect Women from Family Violence!

Check out some of the press coverage today: Al Akhbar, Daily Star, L’Orient le Jour, AsSafir, Al Balad, Al Diyar, Al Moustaqbal, and Al Joumhouriya.

You can also check out the #protectwomen hashtag on twitter for the live updates.

I estimate that we must have been around 800 protesting yesterday – very diverse crowd. The presence of lots of political parties provoked mixed reactions from the feminists, some applauding their participation in the demo (which is a rarity in Lebanon) and others thought their presence was hypocritical and tainted what should have been a people’s march. I personally don’t like marching alongside any party for whatever cause because I dislike all of them, but I respect Kafa’s decision to involve them as partners in the campaign. If there’s any organization in Lebanon that can bring very different groups together at the same table, it’s Kafa, and that requires hard work and guts, so kudos to them.

It was a little disappointing to see that the largest coalition of our women’s movement could only bring together hundreds of people. We are a long way from becoming a mass movement. And certainly the worst thing about the march was the chant “Rfa3 eedak, koun rijjeil” (targetted at parliamentarians). Shou ossitna we still endorse the idea of “being a man?”

All in all, it was a successful demo and we’ll keep our eyes on the developments of the proposed law.

The women’s committee of Dar Al Fatwa in the North of Lebanon have created this flyer bashing CEDAW and claiming that it is an attack on family values and on the psychological and physical particularities of women’s femininity.

If anything, they should be sued for horrible graphic design. Why do they have a suburban American-looking house that is being struck by lightning? Do we have such houses in Tripoli? Who’s being Western now, huh?

Also from Tripoli, posters calling for a demonstration today AGAINST the proposed bill to protect women from family violence.

I think this pubic battle between fundamentalist groups and the women’s movement in Lebanon is terrific. It could finally galvanize supporters to speak up and make themselves heard. And it brings out the opposition that we always knew existed but that didn’t take our efforts seriously before. See you at the demo on Sunday!

People, the lobby AGAINST the protection of women from family violence is starting to speak out with strong statements issued this week by many groups and political parties. Check out this story in As-Safir:

حملة من أجل “تكريس قوانين الأحوال الشخصية” الحالية: “قانون مناهضة العنف الأسري” يهمّش الدين والأخلاق

and this one on New TV:

نعيم قاسم: لسنا مع قانون مدني للأحوال الشخصية بلبنان لانه يخالف الشرع

Religious groups are also lobbying AGAINST the lifting of reservations off the CEDAW, which is an international convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

And so it is very important – now more than ever – to show that:

• We will NOT compromise on women’s human rights no matter what
• We believe in the protection of women from family violence as a basic right for women’s dignity and self-respect.
• We know from evidence that the lack of protection leads to the killing of women in many cases, in addition to their daily suffering from physical, emotional, economic and sexual violence.
• We reject the claim that “reconciliation” is the answer to family violence. When a wife or daughter is beaten, the perpetrator has crossed the line and “reconciliation” should NOT be the woman’s only option.
• We refuse to be pawns in the fighting and bickering of political parties and refuse to be used to further their propaganda and fundamentalist agendas.
• We stand as advocates for women’s human rights – men and women together – from all regions of Lebanon, all ages, all beliefs to say YES to a law that protects women from family violence.

Join us THIS SUNDAY to show your support in a demonstration at 11am from the Ministry of Interior to Riad el Solh in Beirut. Bring your friends and mothers and sisters to show that we will NOT BE SILENCED and we will NOT BE INTIMIDATED by anyone meen ma ken ykoun.

I’ve been wanted to upload a video rant to YouTube for quite a while now and, finally, here is my first attempt!

Isn’t it weird that the illustration of the woman is used in a serious manner to advertise for the Bic shavers? “For legs that beckon?” I thought we were over these stereotypical depictions of women, Canada? Photo taken on the subway in Toronto and posted via my new iPhone app!

Civil Society Celebrates Creation of Gender Equality Entity After Four Years of Advocacy

Press Release from the GEAR Campaign, 30 June 2010. Contact: Charlotte Bunch, 732-642-5271 or cbunch@ig.org, Bani Dugal, 646-404-4210 or bdugal@bic.org, Rachel Harris, 301-535-9702 or rachel@wedo.org

The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign celebrates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, agreed to on 30 June and to be formally adopted by the General Assembly on Friday, 2 July, to establish “UN Women”—the new gender equality entity at the UN.   This move has been sought by women’s organizations and other civil society organizations around the world since the UN established a System-Wide Coherence Panel for UN Reform in 2006. Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University, a founding member of the GEAR Campaign, stated, “We have high expectations for this new agency to be a solid foundation for advancing the human rights of women as central to global policy efforts to reduce poverty and move toward greater realization of peace and democracy in the world.   The coalition of women’s groups and other social justice, human rights and development organizations that played a pivotal role in this effort will now turn its efforts toward ensuring that the new body has the human and financial resources necessary to succeed.”

Particularly notable in the resolution are the paragraphs regarding the importance of civil society participation in the new entity.  The body must have increased operational presence at the country level including engagement with women’s groups and other civil society organizations invested in gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The GEAR Campaign’s global, regional, and national networks will be contacting UN representatives at all levels to work with the transition process and the new Under Secretary-General, once appointed, to ensure they are connected with organizations on the ground ready to provide their expertise and support.

As the new entity is developed, GEAR supporters will continue to advocate for four major elements critical to its implementation:

• Meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation at all levels
• Strong, country-level operational capacity and universal coverage
• Ambitious funding with stable and predictable resources aimed at reaching $1 billion within a few years
• Strong leadership at the top with an Under Secretary-General who combines a global vision with gender equality expertise on the ground

“We know that this is only the beginning,” stated Rachel Harris of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).  “We must continue to ensure that we are building a United Nations that really works for all women on the ground.  Implementation requires active engagement of all stakeholders to get the entity up and running successfully.”

Background

The GEAR Campaign is a network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social justice groups around the world that have been working for four years to gain UN Member State and UN Secretariat approval for creation of a larger more coherent coordinated UN agency that can advance further the UN’s   mandate of working for gender equality as a crucial component of development, human rights, humanitarian concerns, peace and security.

The new Gender Equality Entity to be headed by an Under-Secretary General, will consolidate the four existing UN bodies on women, increase operational capacity at the country level and have gain increased funding for work on women’s empowerment and advancement. The UN currently has four separate entities dedicated to women’s issues which will be combined in the new entity: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).  Bringing these together and coordinating their work more with gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system should the UN and governments to deliver more effectively on their obligations and many commitments to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.

For more information please go to the GEAR Campaign website http://www.gearcampaign.org – or contact the GEAR Campaign at: gearcampaign@gmail.com

Pay close attention to gender stereotyping around you. To unlearn sexism, you have to notice it first.

http://xkcd.com/