"Okeil": We call for the development of national strategies that are consistent with international and regional frameworks to protect women's rights

"Essam El-Din": Addressing violence against women and girls starts with correcting stereotypes

In the context of its interest in empowering women and girls specifically in the Middle East and North Africa, and integrating the feminist perspective in gender-sensitive laws and policies, and societal norms and practices in the countries of the region, Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights participated in the second phase of the training program on “Building the Capacity of Women-Led Civil Society Organizations based on the Principles of Partnership and the Importance of Leadership to Bring Positive Change.”
This stage was held over four days this September in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in cooperation with the “She Leads” project of Plan International and in partnership with the regional office of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
This 4-day program was convened this September in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in cooperation with the "She Leads" project of “Plan International” and in partnership with the regional office of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The program focused on the five strategies in advocating women's rights, starting from the stage of data collection to the stage of advocacy in UN mechanisms, how to train girls to better understand their societies and their needs, and the issues that need to be addressed to enhance their human rights reality. The program also included a number of field visits, including the visit of the National Commission for Lebanese Women's Affairs headed by Mrs. Claudine Aoun; the daughter of the Lebanese President, in order to know more about the Commission’s efforts to improve the human rights conditions of girls and women, and what are the current challenges and the possible ways to confront them in the future.
In this context, Ayman Okeil, an international human rights expert and President of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, confirmed that Maat, in its capacity as having a consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, bears a great responsibility to ensure the effective exchange of information with international and regional mechanisms to protect women’s rights, as well as to participate in raising the awareness about the effective advocacy tools for women’s rights at the international and regional levels. Okeil recommended that the legislative and legal frameworks related to the situation of women and girls in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa should be updated, including the inclusion of long-term plans that are consistent with international and regional legal frameworks to protect women's rights.
In the same context, Pasant Essam El Din, Deputy Director of the Sustainable Development Unit at Maat, and Maat’s representative in the program, highlighted the seriousness of the continuing phenomenon of violence against women and girls in North Africa and the Middle East, which often amounts to murder.
Based on this, "Essam El-Din" recommended the need to strengthen penalties for crimes of violence against women and girls in the region, in addition to the need to intensify awareness campaigns about gender-based violence, strengthen advocacy for amending and introducing laws and changing policies, prevailing patriarchal concepts and bad stereotypes, and helping female victims of violence and provide them with protection, psychological, social, and legal support.
It is noteworthy that Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights had previously participated in the first phase of this regional program, which was held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, last July, in the presence of human rights defenders from Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.