FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Women in the Arab region - Call to End Persistent Inequalities and Discrimination

A l'occasion de la Journée internationale de la femme

Women in the Arab region have consistently been denied their very basic socio-economic, legal, civil, familial, and political rights. Persistent gender inequalities and discrimination represent a major constraint to progress at both the development and security fronts in the Arab region. There is a clear lack of political will to address these inequalities.

The Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) for 2002 noted that discrimination against women is a major obstacle facing development in the Arab region. The AHDR report for 2005 "Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab Region" underlines that the efforts to promote women rights are still very limited and rarely successful.

Women’s poverty in the Arab region extends beyond lack of income and productive resources, and manifests itself through:

o    Limited access to resources and public services such as education and healthcare, as well as limited participation in public and private institutions.
o    Lack of participation in decision-making in the political, economic, civil, social, and cultural spheres.

WE BELIEVE THAT:

Women are core partners and decision-makers in the development process; accordingly the struggle for gender equality should be an issue of concern for both men and women.

Investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency, and sustained economic growth.
In light of the aforementioned, a partnership between the government, civil society, and private sector is needed in the Arab region, at both the national and regional levels, and behind the following objectives:

1.    Addressing the reforms needed in the legal frameworks, including removing reservations on the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and aligning national legislation with the stipulations of CEDAW.

2.    Improving the current nationality laws and giving women the right to pass on their nationality to their children.

3.    Protecting women living in the occupied zones and establishing the needed legislation to exclude women of military operations, and protect women political activists who are subject to imprisonment, exile, and killing.

4.    Establishing and implementing laws protecting women from domestic, societal, and state violence.

5.    Ensuring that gender indicators are incorporated in development policies and the Millennium Development Goals, and implementing positive measures with adequate institutional and financial support in this regards.

6.    Enhancing institutionalized channels and spaces for women’s participation in shaping development strategies at the local, regional, and international levels.

7.    Addressing needed changes in economic policies and institutions to ensure women’s fair access to resources, opportunities, and public services.
 
8.    Unveiling, and actively addressing, the discriminatory gender relations and cultural traditions and stereotypes that are dominated by a patriarchal mind-set, and conservative religious interpretations in Arab countries.

9.    Strengthening networks between the private sector and civil society with the aim of empowering women’s economic, social, and political participation and leadership in society.

FACTS AND QUOTES

• The 2007 Arab MDGs report states that the participation of women in non-agricultural employment in the least developed Arab countries decreased by almost 5% between 1990 and 2004.
• On average, women in the Arab region accounted for only 18.3% of total paid employments in the industrial and services sector in 2004.
• Moreover, the continuous military occupation in Palestine and Iraq and some regions of Lebanon and Syria has increased the level of poverty in these zones and undermined the development progress, and thus limited the chances for women’s economical empowerment. 
• According to the 2007 Arab MDGs report, women in the Arab region held only 8.7% of the region’s parliamentary seats in April 2007, a figure among the lowest in the world.
  

“Equality is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and fundamental pre-requisite for equality, development and peace”
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995

“The feminization of poverty has deepened…. We demand that gender equality and women’s rights be recognized as a central issue for poverty eradication”
GCAP Global Montevideo Declaration 2007

Women rights are intrinsic to the concept of human rights as developed through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

For additional information or comments, please contact:

Arab NGO Network for Development
Tel: +961 1 319 366
Fax: +961 1 815 636
Email: annd@annd.org
Website: annd.org
P.O.Box: 14/5792 Mazraa1105 2070 Beirut- Lebanon

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