News

Medicins Sans Frontiere released in Geneva last Thursday a new report entitled “Misery Beyond the War Zone: Life for Syrian Refugees and Displaced Populations in Lebanon”.  The report states that 250,000 people were displaced from Syria and have sought refuge in Lebanon, many of whom have not received proper health care.  The report notes the degradation of their humanitarian condition because of the long delays in registration which is a pre-requisite for benefiting from official assistance.  The study points out that 72% of total pregnant women have not received proper medical care.  These women have expressed serious concerns with regards to their deteriorating health status as well as the high cost of hospitalization that exceeds the financial capabilities of one out of seven registered women.

The study which focused on three main axis namely a) registration, b) access to health care; and c) shelter and housing, was completed in December 2012 and covered, according to the MSF representative in Lebanon, Zeina Ghantous, 2,124 displaced families located in Tripoli, Arsal. Hermel, Baalbak, Al-Marj, Majdel-Anjar, Saida, in addition to Ain Al-Helweh and Miyeh wa Miyeh Palestinian refugee camps. The study reveled that 93.7% of the sample were Syrian displaced whereas 6.3% were either returning Lebanese or Palestinian refugees from Syria.

Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Safir 11  February 2013

The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Communication have agreed to initiate the first practical steps towards the setting up of a business incubator which will help university Computer Science graduates to develop new software.  The two Ministries will share the cost of this incubator which will reach a total of USD 12.8 million, noting that the incubator will be set up as a public non-profit entity and independent from both Ministries.

Both Ministers emphasized the importance of such a step in supporting the creativity and pioneering sectors which can draw on the distinctive competence of Lebanon in terms of its human resources.  The business incubator is expected to attract young people with potentials and will hopefully provide them with financial resources to transform their ideas into tangible projects.  Both Ministers declared that the knowledge and creativity sectors have the potential to be the lead propeller of economic growth and of creating new employment opportunities for young women and men.
Source: Al-Nahar 9 February

Human Rights Watch launched its 2013 report during a conference in which it shared its assessment of the situation of human rights in more than 90 countries.   The report notes a number of human rights violations in Lebanon and the fact that Lebanon has failed to introduce legal reforms especially in terms of the conditions of detention and imprisonment, upholding women’s rights and the rights of refugees and displaced.

The HRW assistant representative for the region, Nadim Houri reported several cases of torture and abuse by armed forces in addition to discrimination against women in religious family laws and the nationality law in addition to the absence of protection from domestic violence.  He also added that a number of legal reforms proposal have yet to be studied notably the nationality law, the domestic violence protection bill, setting up the national council for the disappeared and others and this despite the fact that most of these have already been discussed by parliamentary committee but such discussions were subsequently blocked.

Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 8 February 2013

Al- Nahar newspaper published a summary of the study undertaken by Center for Educational Research and Development, and covering the years 2010-2011.  The report is entitled “effective use of human resources in the public educational sector” and provides an overview of the size of the public educational sector which exceeds the supply size although recruitment continues without justification.

The study also shows that the gender distribution of teachers does not vary much geographically.  The ratio of women teachers is 86.5% for intermediate level teachers in Beirut, and 66.3% in Nabatieh that have the highest number of male teachers. Similarly, gender distribution at the secondary level generally varied little since the ratio of women teachers was 67.3% in Beirut and 44.8% in Bekaa which is the lowest figure.

Source: Al-Nahar 7 February 2013 

The 2013 edition of the New Arab Woman Forum (NAWF) will be held on March 1st and 2nd at the Movenpick Hotel, organised by the Al Hassna magazine and Al Iktissad Wal Aamal Group under the auspices of the First lady and in collaboration with the French Cultural Center.
The main theme of this session is “Unlocking the Potential of Women Entrepreneurs” and is expected to bring together a group of speakers and participants from both genders from the Arab world and internationally, including ministers and senior public officials, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, experts, journalists, NGO heads and many other personalities.
Speakers thus far include the EU ambassador Angelina Eucharist, Iman Bibars, the head of Ashoka, architect Maysaa batayneh,  actress and activist Zeina Daccache and others…
The agenda of the event focuses on strengthening entrepreneurship and includes a number of related axes namely:
Main topics on the agenda of the Forum include:

• Women’s entrepreneurship as a contributor to employment opportunities.
• Policies and initiatives to support entrepreneurship and to improve the environment for their activity.
• Funding and supporting micro, small and medium sized startups: the current situation and what needs to be done.
• Entrepreneurship education and training.
• Learning from regional and international best practices to boost entrepreneurship among Arab women.

For the second time, the organizers of the Forum will distribute prizes to women who have had distinguished contribution in business, civil service, entrepreneurship, media, art and culture, science and technology and research.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal 6 February 2013

On the occasion of the Arab Women’s Day, the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) launched three new training centers hosted in the headquarters of regional municipal unions of Akkar, Jezzine and Baalbak, in collaboration with the Walid Bin Talal humanitarian foundation and was held at the Training centre of NCLW in Baabda.
The event was organised under the auspices of First Lady Wafa Suleyman, was attended by the NCLW vice presidents Randa Berri and May Mikati, as well as, ex-ministers Wafa Dika and Mona Ofeich, EU ambassador Angelina Eucharist, in addition to municipal heads and key local public figures.  The program of the event included the viewing of a documentary on the project which was followed by key note addresses by the member of NCLW committee, Ms. Fadia Kiwan, ex-minister Layla al Solh and First Lady Wafa Suleyman.  All speakers highlighted the need to improve the situation of women in Lebanon and securing their full rights.  To be noted that the training centres were equipped through a donation from the Walid Bin Talal foundation and within the framework of a memorandum of understanding concluded between the Foundation and NCLW.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar, Al-Diyar 6 February 2013

A delegation of Lebanese business women visited the Femina 2013 business exhibition in Greece last week, an event in which the delegation also took part.  The visit was organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tripoli in collaboration with their Greek homologues.  It sought to provide a space for bilateral discussions amongst Lebanese and Greek business women with a view to collaborate in joint business ventures.
Source: Al-Safir 6 February 2013

The ILO organised yesterday a regional meeting for Arab trade unions entitled: "Women and trade unions in the Arab regions: decent work through organising".  The meeting was attended by trade unions and women organisations representatives from 12 Arab countries notably Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia.
The event was part of the ILO project entitled "building the social, economic and legal capacities of trade unions in the Arab region".
The Lebanese General Trade Union presented a paper indicating that women's participation in trade unions in Lebanon does not exceed 10% of total membership with only 2-5% of leadership positions occupied by women.
Arab women participants noted that generally discrimination against women in the Arab region still prevails particularly in the economic sector where power still lies amongst men. Furthermore, , the ILO senior technical advisor Obeid AL-Berieki indicated in an interview with As Safir newspaper that both women and men in the region suffer from lack of knowledge about union work however women seem to suffer most from this problem as, according to him, women are still bound in stereotypical gender roles.  He also added that Arab trade unions still lag behind in mainstreaming women's priorities and concerns in their agenda and he further reiterated the poor representation of women at the leadership level of these trade unions.  He finally noted that women form only 20% of the membership of trade unions in Jordan and Bahrain and that in the case of Lebanon, women are totally absent from the executive boards of some 600 trade union bodies.  
The regional director of the ILO, Nada Nashef, noted for her part that the weak representation of women in trade unions has led to the emergence of other forms of activism to support women demanding their rights.  She called for collaboration amongst women organisations and trade unions in support of the rights of working women and to help them reach leadership positions.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 5 February 2013