Seminar on liberal judiciary interpretations of the law and women protection

The Legal Agenda organized its last seminar for 2014 and which was devoted to monitoring the performance of the judiciary in dealing with the most marginalized groups in Lebanon namely women, refugees, migrant workers, LGBT and people with substance abuse problems.
Speakers amongst the Legal Agenda team referred to a number of progressive court verdicts issued by judges in the courts of urgent matters, criminal and administrative justices and which resorted to out-of-the-box interpretations which are likely to bring justice to vulnerable groups.  This exercise showed how important it is for the judiciary to liberate itself from age old mindsets and engage in progressive interpretations as well as abide by international human rights treaties signed and ratified by Lebanon.
Lawyer Ghida Frangieh spoke during the session on the problematic of clause 534 of the penal code which speaks about “unnatural intercourse” which is punishable by 1 year in prison.  She noted a progressive verdict by Judge Naji Dahdah in which he exonerated a transsexual by saying that the penal code should be based on independent interpretations and that sexual intercourse is not only for the purpose of procreation. Lawyer Yumna Makhluf spoke about a verdict related to domestic violence and which was rendered in 2014 and which the extent to which the judiciary could overcome reservations simply by using its prerogatives.  Makhluf spoke about a number of pioneer verdicts which were taken prior to the endorsement of the domestic violence bill notably that of Judge Antoine Tohme who forbade a man from returning home where his wife and daughter lives despite the fact that he owns it as the judge gave primacy to the safety and security of the wife and daughter.
Researcher Sara Wansa spoke for her part on the ways in which judges dealt in a progressive ways with cases involving refugees and migrant workers as Judge Jad Maaluf ruled, based on the primacy of protecting migrant workers, for compelling an employer to return the passport to her domestic worker whose right to change her job was endorsed by the same judge despite the sponsorship system currently in force.
(Source: As-Safir 20 December 2014)