MENA Women

At the regional level, WFD supported the Coalition to develop an Arab Convention to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls, similar to the Council of Europe’s ‘Istanbul Convention’. The Convention is designed to respond to the challenges that women face, in peace time as well as during conflict. The second draft was submitted to the Arab League Women’s Committee for consideration in 2017. Consultation meetings with MPs in six countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia) also took place to widen support for the Convention in national parliaments.

At the national level, through the Coalition and in collaboration with dynamic national advocates in parliament, government, local campaign organisations, the business community, and the media, parliaments in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia and Palestine put violence against women and girls on the political agenda. By collectively targeting the ‘rape-marriage’ provision in the penal code – that allowed rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims – and legislation to tackle domestic violence, significant progress was made in the region in 2017. In Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, penal code art. 522 in Lebanon, art. 308 in Jordan and art. 308 in Palestine were all repealed. WFD equipped members of the Coalition with the research capacity and the support they needed to influence colleagues in national parliaments. For example, in Palestine, WFD commissioned an expert study on the impact of discriminatory legislation on women to increase awareness about such legislation in parliament. Coalition meetings, organised with WFD support, took place in December and November 2017 to allow members to share their experiences and coordinate political action at the national and regional level.