News

The Lebanese Council of Women (LWC) organized last week a press conference headed by its president Jamal Gabril in which she renewed the rejection of all forms of discrimination against women, and reiterated its demand for a 30% women quota in parliament, the participation of women in national political dialogue, for granting them their right to pass their nationality to their children, and expressed its endorsement of the law to protect women from domestic violence. The press conference was held in the presence of PM Gilbert Zwayn, ex-minister Mona Ofeish, LCW past presidents; Linda Matar, Aman Shaarani, Iqbal Doughan, and representatives from several civil and women associations.
Gabril also indicated that Lebanese women who are still fighting for their social and political rights, remain marginalized and absent from national, political and citizen actions, adding that the absence of women from decision making positions have acted against the adoption of the law of protection against violence and resulted in the continued denial of her right to pass her nationality to her family in accordance with her constitutional right of equality with man. Gabril concluded that the present discussions around electoral laws are far from being to the benefit of Lebanese citizens; on the contrary they lead to solutions that actually exasperate the problems.
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal 26 January 2013

Kafalat provides three types of loans through local banks.  The highest loan size is 600 million LBP or its equivalent in hard currency and is repayable over seven years with a 6 to 12 months grace period.  These loans benefit from a subsidy from the Central Bank secured by the national treasury and amounting to 7% of the loan amount with some exceptions on the interest rate.  Access to a Kafalt loan is contingent on the submission of a feasibility study.
Al Safir published a report on Kafalat’s loans in 2012 and noted a drop in number of some 19.42% (1025 projects supported in 2012 compared to 1272 supported in 2011).  This decrease is essentially due to the economic slowdown as a result of regional and local instability which affected most economic sectors in the country notably agriculture, industry, and tourism according the statistics of Kafalat and Credit Bank.
The total value of loans reached some 207.91 billion LBP or corresponding to new investments of approximately USD 128.45 million. In terms of targeted sectors, the highest percentages were recorded in agriculture 38.73% and then industry 28.34 %s, while tourism accounted for 177 projects representing 17.27%. On the other hand, 72 projects, worth some 14.32 billion LBP or USD 9.50 million were implemented in December 2012 whereas 90 projects were implemented in December 2011 of a net worth USD 13.06 million. Figures indicated that loans to the agriculture sector declined by 124 projects, from 521 projects in December 2011 to 397 projects in 2012, which represented a fall of 23.80 %.

Source: Al-Safir 23 January 2013

ESFD announced in a statement issued yesterday that the number of new projects it has funded in the last quarter of 2012 through its “employment generation component” totaled 153 projects of a total value of 3.8 billion Lebanese pounds and thus creating 152 new employment opportunities.  As such, the total number of projects supported since the creation of the ESFD in 2003 and until December 2012 has grown to 7038 projects funded through small loans amounting to a total of 105 billion Lebanese pounds and thus creating a total of 4650 new work opportunities (c.f The Economic and Social Development Fund creates 250 employment opportunities during the third quarter of 2012 dated: 31 October 2013)
It is to be reminded that ESFD was created for the purpose of fighting poverty and mitigating its impact on vulnerable communities. ESFD includes two components namely “creation of work opportunities” and “local development” and is funded by the European Union through a partnership agreement with the Council for Development and Reconstruction concluded back in the year 2000.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Safir 23 January 2013

The National Observatory for Rural Women in Lebanon (NOWARA) launched a campaign entitled “stories from our village” as part of an initiative seeking to raise awareness of intermediary level students in public and private schools in Lebanon.  This campaign will extend over a three year period and is in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.  The Campaign is one of the components of the economic and social development project targeting rural communities in Lebanon and is implemented by NOAWARA and CTM Onlus, an Italian NGO in partnership[p with the Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the Italian government.  Technical implementation has been commissioned to the Friends of Puppets troop.

NOWARA’s president, former Minister Wafa Dika noted, in her key note address during the launch, that the new book entitled “stories from our village” includes nine stories coving a wide range of themes that includes the roles of women and men in rural areas, in agriculture, economy, heritage, cooperatives, public and political work, elections, etc…

Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Mutaqbal 23 January 2013

My Nationality is a Right for me and my Family Campaign organized a Press Conference yesterday Tuesday 22 January at the YWCA premises in Ain Mreisseh. The event was attended by 150 women concerned by the law in addition to media representatives, a representative from the National Commission for Lebanese Women, as well as representatives from the Lebanese Working Women League, Kafa, RDFL and other women organisations.  The Press Conference was convened in order to share the nationality Campaign analysis of the arguments presented by the Mokbel Commission as well as inform the media and the public of the next steps to be taken by the Campaign.

The Nationality Campaign critiqued the fact that the Mokbel Commission resorted to the “demographic imbalance argument” as well as the abuse of the issue of naturalization of Palestinian refugees noting that the statistics presented by the Ministry of Interior do not substantiate the stated demographic imbalance and are counterproductive to the Commission since they show that only 6% of women married to non-nationals are actually married to Palestinians.

The Campaign also noted that it will continue to reiterate that rights and equality are primordial universal principles and take precedence over any other consideration.  The Campaign also noted that Minister Bassil spearheaded the attack on women’s right to nationality and succeeded in having the upper hand despite the support for the reform of the nationality law expressed by the Prime Minister and by Ministers Fneich, Ali Khalil, Kanso and Abou-Faour.  

The Press Conference concluded on an emphasis of the future steps to be taken by the Campaign namely the stepping up of actions leading to the parliamentary elections as the Campaign will be scrutinizing the position of each candidate on this issue and will be publicizing its findings while calling on women not to vote for candidates who will undermine their rights.

The representative of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, Maitre Mirna Azar regretted the lack of seriousness with which the Mokbel Commission addressed the issue and the fact that the Commission did not even acknowledge and study the law proposal submitted by the NCLW.

Source: Al-Akhbar, Al-Safir 23 January 2013

The joint FAO/WHO commission to coordinate the food security protocol in the Near East Region held its seventh meeting in Beirut.  The event was under the auspices of the Ministers of Public Health and Agriculture.  The event was also attended by the WHO EMRO regional director, Alaa Alouan, the FAO representative in Lebanon, Dr. Ali Moumen and representatives from 13 member countries in addition to representatives of NGOs and security forces.

The Minister of Agriculture said in his key note address that the role of this joint commission is to identify key regional issues and priorities in terms of food standards as well as coordinate regional food security protocols.  Minister Hajj Hassan further noted that developing research and ability to undertake risk assessments will require the coordination and pooling of efforts amongst governments as well as the private and NGOs sector.  Haj Hassan pointed out to the increasing risks in the region, notably poor investment and the impact of political insecurity, on regional food security.  According to the Minister, these factors have increased reliance on food imports which is growing and has reached 60% between 2011 and 2012.  This in itself is a worrying indicator.

Al Khalil noted the need for food security protocols which will include all food needs and its linkage to public health.  He pointed out to the status of global chaos at the level of dietary supplements and the need for setting up standards and restrictions at the national level.  This, he said, has now been addressed through the enactment of laws which monitor and record the imports and advertisement of dietary supplements.

Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Safir 22 January 2013

The talk of the town these days is certainly the civil marriage contracted in Lebanon between Nidal Darwich and Khouloud Sukkaryeh which has attracted the attention of many a politician including President Michel Suleiman who has tweeted about this calling for the codification of civil marriage in Lebanon.
Bride and groom resorted to law 60 l.r. of 1936 (according to the numbering used by the French colonial powers back then) and which allows for individuals not following any confession to marry whilst following a procedure entailing a public declaration of their marriage 145 days before the event and ensuring that there are no objection to their union.  Following this step, bride and groom exchanged a civil  marriage contract at the private notary.
The director of the Civil National Initiative, Talal el Husseini, declared in a seminar organized yesterday on the right to contract civil marriage in Lebanon that with the completion of the procedure, the couple is now officially married and bound in a contract that is duly recognized by the law.  Husseini reiterated that the marriage contract does not need the approval of the Ministry of Interior to become valid.  It has already been entered in the civil register and a copy was sent to the legislative council since it is an unprecedented document.  The council’s opinion is only of a advisory nature and is not binding.
For his part, the Minister of Interior indicated in an interview given to An Nahar newspaper that his Ministry had already referred this request for civil marriage upon receiving it to the Ministry of Justice who has turned it down given the absence of a legal code to legislate it.  The Minister added that such request will never be approved.

Source: Al-Safir, Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar 21 January 2013