Press and Publications

As part of the Regional Campaign on Zero Tolerance for Violence Against Women and Girls, funded by the European Union. Arab Women Organization and EuroMed Feminist Initiative held a National Consultation on Developing Regional Guidelines for Women, Peace and Security Agenda on November 13 in Amman, Jordan under the patronage of H.E. Ms. Basma Ishaqat, Minister of Social Development. The consultation aimed at fostering a common understanding of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda and developing guidelines for the implementation of the agenda on national and regional levels.

Press conferences were held on 22nd - 23rd of September 2019 in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia to officially launch a Media Campaign on Zero Tolerance for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). The Media Campaign is a part of a broader Regional Campaign on Combating Violence against Women and Girls in the Southern Mediterranean Region, initiated in January 2019 by EuroMed Feminist Initiative in consortium with 9 women’s rights organizations from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco Palestine and Tunisia, and funded by the European Union.

The Regional Campaign on Zero Tolerance for Violence Against Women and Girls was launched on 2-3 May 2019 in Amman, Jordan in the frame of the project “Combating Violence against Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region”, funded by the EU. The launching conference gathered about 140 participants from 14 countries in the Euro-Med region. The participants represented ministries, institutions, political parties, CSOs and CBOs. They also included members of parliaments, gender, and legal experts and activists, journalists and researchers.

In the frame of the project “Combating Violence against Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region”, funded by the EU, a Regional Experts Roundtable “Promoting Gender Equality Through Education” was held on 18 June 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon. The roundtable gathered 27 legal and gender experts and researchers from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, France, and Sweden, as well as representatives from the ministry of education from Jordan and Lebanon.

Launched in January 1st 2019, EuroMed Feminist Initiative EFI and a consortium of women´s rights organizations in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia started implementing a three-year regional project “Combating Violence against Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region”, funded by the EU.

The Regional Guidelines were developed in a participatory process involving a series of national and regional consultations and expert meetings on VAWG and WPSA. The Regional Guidelines may be seen as a firm step in the direction of achieving inclusive peace and social safety in the region. Building regional agreements, platforms and bases for cooperation and policy making, such as these Guidelines, play a critical role in the formulation of normative frameworks that strengthen accountable national institutions, and provide conditions conducive to inclusive and sustainable development. They allow for a better understanding and cooperation between States and thus contribute to peace and stability in the region, and the promotion and protection of human rights for all.

This report is intended to reflect the discussions during the regional conference aimed to launch the 2021 Regional Index on VAWG and discuss the main results, scope and use of the findings on the national and regional policy levels. The conference also aimed to provide policy recommendations on combating VAWG.

The Syrian Civil Society Women’s Rights Conference to combat violence against women and girls as a main obstacle to women’s participation in decision-making and peace building was held over two days on December 9-10 2021, in Brussels, in-person and online. The conference brought together more than 100 representatives of Syrian women’s rights organizations, civil society organizations and local initiatives, and representatives from international organizations, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN).

This brief sheds light on areas of combating violence against women and girls (VAWG) and focuses on legal reform needed to prevent and combat it. The analysis for the situation of VAWG provided in this brief is based on the explorative study conducted by the Regional Civil Society Observatory (RCSO) in 2020 and the regional index on VAWG. The brief summarises the study and its findings pertaining to legislation. The brief is intended to provide recommendations to governments to improve the laws based on informed decisions and to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to advocate and contribute to the change. To combat VAWG, the brief recommends reforming the legal framework by removing discriminatory articles and adopting a specific and comprehensive law on VAWG in which all forms of violence are mentioned as defined in United Nations legal and policy instruments and are comprehensively criminalised.

On December 21st, 2020, the Regional Civil Society Observatory (RCSO) hosted by the EuroMed Feminist Initiative (EFI) launched the Regional Index on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) during an Online Roundtable aimed at presenting the Regional Index, over 70 decision-makers, ministerial representatives, EU and UfM representatives, UN agencies, legal and gender experts, researchers, and representatives of women’s rights organizations from the Euro-Med region, discussed recommendations to improve data collection in the region, and different tools to better address collectively the challenges identified by the RCSO through legislative change, policy-making and increased multi-actor cooperation, nationally and regionally.

In the South Mediterranean region, there is little reliable information about the prevalence and trends in Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). However, some studies about the real situation of women the magnitude of the problem and show alarming figures on VAWG. Advancing women’s rights and combating all forms of VAWG are priorities for Euro Mediterranean countries as stated in the 4th Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Ministerial Declaration on “Strengthening the Role of Women in Society” (Cairo, 2017) and States are responsible for enacting and implementing laws and public policies to combat VAWG and ensure achieving gender equality.