As an outcome of a joint project between UNDP, UN Women UN, and UNFPA, a report was launched yesterday on the legislations, policies and practices related to gender equality and justice in Lebanon. In this respect, the minister of state for women’s affairs in the caretaker government, Jean Ogassapian, stressed the need to translate the report’s recommendations into an executive plan. The Deputy UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Philippe Lazzarini, for his part, pointed out that there is still a lot to be done to achieve the desired objectives in Lebanon, stating that women in this country face discrimination at all levels. In turn, the editor of the report, Manar Zeiater, outlined the main conclusions focusing on the fact that justice is baseless in the presence of discriminatory laws and policies at the level of gender or that are not in conformity with human rights approaches. Gender equality, Zeiater maintained, is meaningless outside the context of guaranteeing justice to women and all marginalized groups. The report included a number of recommendations calling for the following: Adoption of a law that fights early marriage; criminalization of sexual harassment; ensuring equality in rights between men and women, such as the right to grant nationality; training police and law enforcement units on approaches based on gender equality and increasing the participation of women at the political, economic and social levels. (Al Mustaqbal, August 8, 2018)
