NCLW critical of partial advocacy efforts against women discrimination

The National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) launched yesterday its second annual report on the development of the action plan for the national strategy for women in Lebanon (2010-2021) completed in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The report outlined efforts deployed so far by the public sector, civil society and international organization to realize the above objective and detailed the projects executed during the year 2014. The report criticized the partial approach in the legal and legislative performance of organizations in their attempts to remove discriminatory provisos against women embedded in national laws, as these demands, according to the report, remain limited to adjusting specific legal articles without tackling the law in a comprehensive manner. The report also detected a remarkable decline in the number of organizations pressuring the government to lift its reservations on the CEDAW agreement (Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). In education, the report pressed the need to issue decrees absolute for the Law of Compulsory and Free education, and to eradicate all gender stereotyping especially of women in textbooks. In economy, the report urged banks to stop all discrimination practices against women in respect to their right to open a bank account for their minor children. (An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, July 29, 2016)