By Emma Gatten
BEIRUT: The parliamentary
subcommittee studying the draft law to protect women from domestic violence is
likely to come to a compromise soon over key clauses, particularly the marital
rape clause an MP in the committee told The Daily Star Tuesday.
The committee, made up of eight MPs,
met Tuesday to discuss the draft law, which has undergone serious amendments
since entering committee stage, particularly the removal of the clause
outlawing marital rape.
Zahle MP Shant Janjanian, from the
Lebanese Forces bloc, told The Daily Star Tuesday that while the meeting had
not been as productive as he had hoped, the draft law was now in the “final
push” and said he was positive the committee would make progress on the marital
rape clause.
Last week, Janjanian’s colleague,
Bsharri MP Strida Geagea, released a statement decrying the changes, in
particular the marital rape amendment, saying the party would pull Janjanian
from the committee if the amendments were not reversed.
The day before the meeting Janjanian
told The Daily Star that members in the committee, particularly Beirut MP Imad
Hout, from Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, had become “more flexible” in their approach
to the clause. Hout in December told The Daily Star there was no such thing as
marital rape.
Activists have been vocal in their
objection to the amendments. In February, hundreds of Lebanese gathered in
Downtown Beirut to protest the removal of the marital rape clause. Janjanian
said NGO and activist work had played a key role in the re-evaluation of the
clause. “The demonstrations and all the pressure have made an impact,” he said
Monday.
MPs at the meeting also heard from
Myrna Azzar Najjar – from the government’s National Committee for Lebanese
Women’s Affairs – who after the meeting said she was “optimistic” about the
potential for the marital rape clause to be amended satisfactorily.
“They told me they are working to
find a new clause to solve the problem of marital rape and they’re not going to
stop the discussion at this point, they’re going to talk more about it,” she
said.
It was not clear Tuesday what the
compromise over the amendments might be, and Janjanian said he was less sure
that other amendments which have faced criticism, including the change of the
title of the bill from “protecting women from family violence” to “protecting
the entire family,” would be reversed.
Tripoli MP Samir Jisr, the head of
the subcommittee, released a statement following the meeting saying that MPs
had prepared a plan of action that would be “in line with the Constitution,
Lebanese Law and international agreements, especially the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights.”
Women’s rights activists have also
criticized the committee’s inclusion in the bill of Article 26, which ensures
personal status laws that govern family relations and override laws in the
domestic violence bill.
“We are not against the idea of the
protection, but we are trying to make the protection match the position of
Lebanese law,” Hout told The Daily Star. In reference to the marital rape
clause, Hout said the MPs on the committee “all agree that such violence is
condemned,” but appeared to maintain his stance that “marriage” should not be
associated with the crime of rape.
He added it was important that the
draft law not be rushed. “There is a part of public opinion that is pushing to
have the text as soon as possible, even if it’s not practical, or not
applicable.”
He also said he was sure the current
version of the draft law would better protect women than its original draft.
Zoya Rouhana, the director of women’s rights
group Kafa, which was instrumental in the drafting of the original law, told
The Daily Star that if the committee’s amendments remain in place, the
legislation could never be as effective as the original draft.
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