Jordan Times
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Petition calls for laws
to protect women victims of domestic violence
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN The Lower House of Parliament supports
national initiatives to end domestic violence in the Kingdom, Deputy Speaker
Nayef Fayez said on Wednesday.
The deputy's remarks were made yesterday during a meeting with a delegation
representing youth and women's movements in the Kingdom, which handed the Lower
House a petition calling for drafting laws that protect women who are victims of
domestic violence.
The Lower House rejects all forms of domestic violence and fully supports any
local initiative that seeks to tackle the issue and draft laws that protect the
family, Fayez told the gathering.
The delegation also handed the House a banner signed by HRH Princess Basma and
hundreds of people who took part in the Global Campaign: 16 Days of Activism
against Gender Violence, which specifically calls for more laws to protect
women from violence.
We urge the Parliament to be our partner in this national effort since the
House is the legislative body that can support our initiatives, said Fotouh
Younes, project coordinator at the National Forum for Youth and Culture (NFYC).
Earlier on Wednesday, around 70 students and activists from several universities
and youth from the NFYC participated in a bike ride from the Shmeisani Culture
Street to the Parliament.
We decided to start the ride from the Culture Street as a symbolic gesture, to
establish a culture that says `no to domestic violence', Younes said.
The object of the event was to lobby policymakers to adopt our demands, which
included drafting more laws to protect women from discrimination, according to
Younes.
At the same time, the petition calls on the Parliament to endorse the
international conventions ratified by the Kingdom, including the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, she added.
The NFYC is one of the Freedom House (FH) Grantees for the 16 Days Campaign
2005, which is supported by FH and funded by Middle East Partnership Initiative
(MEPI).
FH established its project in the spring of 2004 to support Jordanian efforts to
prevent family violence and to promote women's rights in the Kingdom through
technical support, capacity building and advocacy grants for awareness campaigns
with support from the US Department of State's MEPI.
The 16 Days Campaign, held under the patronage of Princess Basma, is part of a
global campaign for women's human rights.
The campaign begins every year on Nov. 25 the International Day for the
Eradication of Violence Against Women and ends on Dec. 10, International Human
Rights Day, in order to establish a symbolic link between violence against women
and human rights, and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human
rights.
The Jordanian initiative will continue until the end of this month.
The 16 Days activities in Jordan are part of a small grants programme conducted
by Freedom House, a nonprofit organisation founded in 1941 that promotes
freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights around the world.
Grantees for 2005 include the Community Centres Association (CCA), the National
Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), the Noor Al Hussein Foundation's (NHF) Institute
for Family Health (IFH), the NFYC, Jordan Youth, and AmmanNet.
The Jordanian National Commission for Women, Princess Basma Youth Resource
Centre and the Performing Arts Centre of the NHF are key partners contributing
to the campaign.
Freedom House's programme seeks to strengthen the capacity of civil society
organisations to effectively advocate for programmes that prevent violence
against women and advocate for women's rights.
Since 1991, over 2,000 organisations in approximately 137 countries have
participated in the 16 Days Campaign, which is coordinated by the Centre for
Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University.