CEWLA has been actively engaged in the formation of groups and
networks that press on changing the legal clauses discriminating
against women at the national level. As part of these efforts,
CEWLA submitted in January 2001 a parallel report to that of the
Egypt's government to the Commission that monitors the implementation
of the CEDAW convention
Furthermore,
the center is a member in the UNICEF institutional support project
that incorporates numerous associations from all over the country
to follow -up on Beijing resolutions and the status of women.
This project adopts Beijing resolutions and seeks to work through
six pivots: equality before the law, lifting burden off women,
to eradicate violence against woman, and to promote mother &
child health and education.
The
center actively participated in preparing the training portfolio
of child convention CRC with the NGO collation therefore the center
will establish the child unit which will work on creating special
program to discuss child right according to CRC and the Egyptian
child law.
The
center has contributed to a number of training workshops and legal
awareness sessions in Egypt's various govern orates such as 'Sohag,
Quena and Alexandria govern orates for the purpose of helping
their associations (many of whom are participating in this project)
establish legal assistance centers for women
The
center is also a member the child -rights coalitions. Last year
it participated in putting together the shadow report to that
of the government presented to the UN committee last year. CEWLA
also actively participated in the Arab conference under the UNICEF
auspices in Morocco on the rights of the Arab child and challenges
facing them.
Other
than that the center has been a member of a group of civil associations
that arranges activities to celebrate the world's mother day on
March 8th of each year. Each year the theme of these celebrations
differs. For example last year, the celebration's themes was the
CEDAW agreement
The
center is also a member in the coalition concerned with the study
of the new NGO law and which attempts to highlight the weak spots
of this proposed law, and to exert pressure on the government
for the purpose of modifying the law, so as not to restrict the
associations and NGOs, particularly as a result of its restrictive
terms for NGO establishment, the nature of their work and the
mechanism of implementation.
The
center conducts various activities that are part of the proposed
project:
The
Hot Line Project
This
project is financed by the Canadian Agency for Development (CIDA)
and which seeks to provide legal counseling to women through the
phone. The project functioned for two years and proved very successful,
as incoming calls were numerous and helped provide women with
legal counseling on various issues ranging from personal problems
to problems they encountered with the government authorities and
legal structures.
The
cases unit adopted nearly 17 judicial hot -line cases. The unit
managed documented the hot line calls and released a report that
provided a critical and objective reading of these cases, and
categorized the cases according to their content (violence, legal
illiteracy and other legal problems prevalent among women)
Training
&Legal Awareness Project
This project is financed by Danish Agency for Development (DANIDA).
The project goal is to organize legal awareness and training workshops
through training units in 14 govern orates. The workshops targeted
two main categories of women: the illiterate women who are beneficiaries
of other associations and NGOs, and women in the field
The training workshop contributed to the dissemination of the
experiences related the legal awareness and services provided
to many associations and to encouraging them on putting women's
issues and rights on the work agenda of their various units
It
is important to note here the cooperation taken place between
UNICEF in Egypt CEWLA was asked to hold three training workshops
within the framework of the institutional support project to help
the associations participating to establish legal support centers
that would render the legal awareness services in the various
govern rates. So far training workshops have been held in Sohag,
Alexandria and Quena
CEWKA
will be implementing a project that strengthens the political
participation of women, following the syndicates and parliamentary
election taken place recently though a series of workshops that
will raise awareness regarding the necessity of women 's participation
and exercising her political rights.
The
project also aims at building awareness among illiterate women
& literacy beneficiaries in no. Of associations. In this regard,
a project is currently underway to develop training material,
financed by Norway agency in order to train trainers on the legal
awareness and rights of women, and the related national legal
provisions and the international agreement.
The
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Violence against women project.
The
project financed by 'RAINBO' seeks to hold 18 workshops for the
legal awareness regarding FGM and the legal rights concerned with
woman and child rights. It is also planned to devise a manual
to train trainers, which is to be presented to a committee for
evaluation and then tried in workshop until it is finalized and
distributed to the associations,
The center cooperates with the American Agency for Development
(USAID) in organizing a limited no of workshops to raise awareness
regarding the health hazards related to FGM and how to eliminate
it
The
project looks at many associations surrounding Boulak El -Dakrour
area as its target It is worth nothing here that many of the women
who are being trained as trainers, have already received training
from the same agency on "the positive model" and use
it to raise awareness against FGM. CEWLA's pilot women were among
those who did best in using the positive model idea and disseminate
such experience along with associations concerned with health
rights and FGM
In
terms of the positive changes witnessed during the intervening
period:
There has been a marked increase in the awareness of targeted
women of health related rights and topics. This the center achieved
by addressing sensitive issues such as Female Genital Mutilation,
through a series of lectures, awareness raising and learning activities,
and provided a forum for debate among participants.
There has been an increase in demand on the literacy classes provided
by the center and other NGOs who have begun offering these classes
upon the initiative and in collaboration with CEWLA.
Identifying the needs of the area, encouraged donor and developmental
agencies to devise plans to find means to address these needs
and devise possible solutions.
Creative Women in the Shadow Project:
CEWLA
also participated in the " creative women in the shadow "
project. This project sheds light on the creativity of women and
the need to highlight their output through media. The project
involves 29 women with various creative abilities singing, folklore,
novel writing and handicrafts.
The
Honors Crime Project:
Finally,
thee center participated in the first Arab regional conference
on the crimes of honor where a background paper on the topic was
presented. CEWLA center intends to put the topic on its work agenda
for the next couple of years. Participation was articulated in
the presentation of a working paper on the crimes of honor and
their types according to its relevant government statistics, this
is considered to be the first Arab participation to select honor
crimes to be its target. Besides, the center is looked upon as
one of the first centers to concern itself with women rights and
taking the first step to force it on the national agenda, and
debate the issue.
Exchange visits
The
center participated in an Arab conference in Jordan on development
and social challenges, organized by the International Center for
Training on Sustainable Development. The participation strengthened
the center planning capacity and highlighted the need to consider
the pre requisites of sustainable development in the designing
and implementing its projects
One
of the center staff members also participated in an Arab conference
on documentation and mechanisms of technological documentation,
which sheds light in the center on the significance of documentation
in setting up a library using pure technological method and mechanisms
The
center also participated in the Arab conference in Jordan among
that followed up on Beijing +5 resolutions. The center was represented
by two of its members, which constitutes a miniature of the international
participation for the follow up on Beijing resolutions. It worth
nothing also that the center participated in the follow up on
Beijing resolutions in New York. Through its participation, the
center represented Egyptian Civil Society Organizations. We should
refer here to the center participation in the conference of the
international committee to stop all forms of discrimination against
women, as the center is a member in the coalition of the civil
association concerned with presenting the shadow report. The center
could also presented an additional report to portray its view
on the status of women based on its professional experience in
the field
Furthermore,
the center participated in a regional conference on the laws of
the Arab personals affairs or the family laws where the center
presented a critical objective paper on the Egyptian personal
affairs laws and its latest amendment particular in relation to
the provision on violence.
Some
of the organization with which CEWLA is planning exchange visits
and activities are:
-
The Arab Institute for Human Rights/ Tunis
- Al
Kawter for Training and Studies/Tunis
- Jordanian
Women's Union
- Others
in Lebanon and Morocco
Training
for Staff:
A
number of workshops were conducted for staff, the most important
of which were:
- A
training workshop on communication to help execute and document
the cases of the hot line project. The topic of this workshop
is a new addition to the skills of the team of work operating
on these issues and gives credibility to the work conducted,
as it helps expand the horizons of center staff members and
allows them to acquire new skills.
-
A workshop on the strategic planning. This was on of the best
workshops ever organized for staff members, and focused on identifying
many important aspects regarding planning and strategy setting
for the work team. The workshop focused on identifying many
important aspects regarding the planning for the center goals
and the mechanisms of implementation. The workshop disseminated
new ideas and discussed the scientific approach necessary to
form a future vision for the goals of the centers and the renewal
of its agenda.
- A
workshop on the social class (???) and its relevance to development.
The topic of this workshop is considered to be a new topic for
the work team and has had positive impact on the designing and
implementation of projects
-
Others: One of the center staff members was given a training
opportunity to attend the UN committee concerned with the international
agreement to stop discrimination against women. The training
was conducted on the parallel reports, which are usually forwarded
by the civil associations. Another staff member was trained
on documentation by attending a regional workshop in Lebanon
for six days.
Research Outputs
-
A legal research entitled " Objective Reading into the
New Law of Personal Affairs ". The research accounts for
a critical reading in the law of personal affairs, the most
important highlight of which was the article on " Repudiation".
This research spells out an objective vision studying the positive
and negative points of repudiation.
-
A documentation of the Egyptian women issues in the press and
keeping track of the most pressing women issues i.e. pure development
issues, women rights issues and how they are addressed in the
media The study also focused two national papers and two opposition
papers and how each side presented women issues and addressed
them.
-
A social research on poverty and the social insurance. This
research included conducting a field survey composed of a sample
of pension and insurance beneficiaries benefiting from the existing
government schemes and assessed the various problems and hindrances
they are encountering
- A
social and historical research on the Egyptian family, the marriage
acts and its amendments, the relevant social mobility and the
obstacles faced.
-
A documentation of the hotline cases. It methodologically handled
and monitors statistics in such a way as to provide a critical
reading on the status of women.
6) The center participated in directing documentary with the
UNICEF with in the framework the institutional support for civil
associations. The documentary sought to raise awareness amongst
women on procedures necessary for the issuing of official documents
that safeguard their legal rights.
New
Activities on the Agenda:
The
Center will be addressing the honor crime project by researching
and on of the forms of violence against women, which are civil
associations never touched on a form yet particularly since the
center has developed some form of expertise from attending a previous
conference in Jordan that debated the crimes of honor in the Arab
region.
Amongst
the various activities planned in this regard is to identify key
issues around which to start raising awareness and formulating
media campaigns. These issues include violence against women,
the requirement of prior travel authorization for women from their
spouses. The center will seek to coordinate its efforts with many
other civil associations for this purpose.
