Combating women trafficking in Lebanon through prevention and protection

In the framework of the regional program ‘HEYA’, the Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (LWDG) organized yesterday a round table on ‘women trafficking in Lebanon’ at the municipality of Saida in the South. The program aims at supporting women in leadership, in partnership with the International Development Academy-MENA region and funds from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. In its opening speech, LWDG-Saida branch officer Bana Samra pointed out that the gathering has been jointly working with other democratic groups to help empower women in order to face all forms of discrimination against them and so as to realize gender equality.” Likewise, HEYA coordinator in Lebanon, Hayat Mershad, underlined the significance of the program in increasing the level of participation of women in public arenas leading to sustainable and just changes in legislations and policies to this effect, while not excluding the most vulnerable and marginalized of women. For his part, MP Michel Musa, citing the international report on human trafficking by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, said that 70% of victims are women and girls. Mussa added that trafficking that trafficking has multiple faces, notably, prostitution and exploiting women in promoting and publicizing of goods, as well as the marriage of minors. Mousa while mentioning the inadequacy of laws which only tend to support penal measures, pressed the need for devising preventive and protective mechanisms to help the victims. In conclusion, colonel Elie Asmar underscored the role of the internal security forces in identifying the victims of human trafficking in order to dismantle the criminal mafia networks. (An Nahar, August 31, 2016)