Daily Star - Lebanon marks Women's Day with bid to promote participation in politics

Campaign looks to encourage greater female role in municipal polls

By Carol Rizk Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Lebanon marked International Women’s Day on Monday by launching a new campaign to promote the participation of women in political life. The National Campaign to Promote the Participation of Women in Local Governance was launched during a ceremony held at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The campaign was carried out by the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) and the Social Affairs Ministry, under the patronage of First Lady Wafaa Michel Sleiman and with the collaboration of the Italian Embassy in Beirut. It aimed at encouraging women to participate in the municipal elections scheduled for June, whether through voting or through presenting their candidatures. It adopted the slogan “The Time Has Come for You to Act.” NCLW secretary Fadi Karam spoke on behalf of Sleiman and highlighted the measures the campaign would be launching in the near future. The mentioned initiatives included advertisements, workshops and electoral reforms. Advertisements would be displayed weeks before the municipal elections and would include billboards, announcements on television, in magazines and newspapers, and through SMS messages all related to the campaign’s slogan. Workshops on the participation of women in local governance would be organized in coordination with NGOs and civil society, and the campaign would work on making sure the electoral law for the municipal elections is in compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Karam then stressed the importance of the campaign and said it was distinguished because it relied on “cooperation and partnership,” two criteria he said were indispensible for the success of any activity. He also commented on the adoption of a women’s quota in the municipal elections and said he was disappointed with the Cabinet’s decision but still appreciated all the efforts put into the matter. Lebanon’s Cabinet approved in February the adoption of a women’s quota for the municipal elections. However it agreed women should form a minimum of 20 percent of all candidates on ballot lists for the elections while Interior and Municipalities Minister Ziyad Baroud had proposed a quota of 30 percent. Karam reminded the gathered that the quota was a temporary measure saying: “This quota adoption has taken into consideration Lebanon’s international obligations and most particularly the Beijing Platform for Action, in which the adoption of a quota for women was accepted temporarily.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also referred to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the message he gave for International Women’s Day. “The landmark Beijing Declaration has had a deep and wide-ranging impact. It has guided policy making and inspired new national laws … The Beijing Declaration remains as relevant today as when it was adopted,” he said. The declaration was adopted in Beijing in 1995 during the Fourth World Conference on Women and it aimed at advancing the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere. Although Lebanon participated in the platform, many actions still need to be taken to improve the situation of Lebanese women. “Lebanese women have made many achievements but much more work needs to be done to get to a level of real participation in decision making,” said Social Affairs Minister Salim Sayegh during the campaign’s launching ceremony. He stressed that Lebanon could not flourish without equality between all its citizens but regretted that the reality of the country’s situation was forbidding women from having any actual participation and furthermore, it was hindering sustainable human development. “Political, administrative and social actions are limiting to a great extent the possibility of improving the situation of women,” he said. Sayegh also commented on the adoption of the women’s quota in the elections and said it was an important step because it transformed exercising women’s rights from an option to an obligation. “Not benefiting from women’s abilities and skills is a waste of development capacities,” he said, thanking all those who participated in organizing the campaign. The National Campaign to Promote the Participation of Women in Local Governance launching ceremony also included a music show presented by Charbel Rouhana and several other musicians who performed traditional and folkloric music. International Women’s Day is a global day marked yearly on March 8 since 1911. It celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, the present and the future.