Iraqi Al-Amal Association Participates in Gender Experts’ Regional Meeting: The Laws on Sexual Violence in the Middle East and North Africa
Iraqi Al-Amal Association Participates in Gender Experts’ Regional Meeting:
The Laws on Sexual Violence in the Middle East and North Africa
The activist Awatif Turki Rasheed represented Iraqi Al-Amal Association at the Gender experts’ regional meeting on sexual violence laws in the Middle East and South Africa. The meeting was held in Lebanon from November 18th to 20th November, 2015. The participants included experts in Gender issues from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco. The proceedings contained many discussions on specific laws which are prejudicial to women. The aim was to establish legal proceedings to modify these laws in order to keep pace and response to the forms of sexual crimes committed and used it as a tool for advocacy locally and internationally
The meeting was organized by Nazra Feminist Studies Centre in Egypt. The agenda included many discussions on the criminal, civil, and personal status laws for these countries. The participants presented the legal and legislative issues in sexual violence crimes.
The constitutions and international agreements applicable in the countries of the region were also discussed with view to applying them to exercise pressure to modify the laws and legislations. The participants, representing their countries presented draft laws for legislative reforms in the participating countries, and methods on modifying these laws and legislations in conflict areas.
The sessions on the third day were concluded with a discussion on the local and international advocacy mechanisms to work on modifying these laws and legislations in the Middle East and South Africa. And, make these modifications on the basis of the recommendations and conclusions approved by the Commission on the Status of Women in the United Nations in 2013. The meeting was concluded by presenting recommendations and discussing follow-up and networking.