Dear Networker, NAD produces various e-publications, free of charge, to inform its members but also international and regional spheres on Arab issues related to development and to gender. If you wish to inquire on NAD please contact <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> If you wish to receive regularly this publication send a request to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with a short introduction on yourself and/or organisation. Thank you. __ NAD REGIONAL NEWS October 15-22, 2000 Issue Focus: Gender A newsletter that covers current Arab issues and related press news on development and gender. In Solidarity, please forward this e-mail to others and make print out copies for those without e-mail access. CONTINENTS 1. PALESTINE: Gender and Conflict Situation 2. YEMEN: Engendering the Constitution 3. EGYPT: Education of Human Rights Conference 4. KUWAIT: University Seeking More Funds to Complete Gender Segregation 5. JORDAN: Putting Women College Graduates to Work 6. ANNOUNCEMENT: Kuwaiti Women On-Line! * * * 1. PALESTINE: Gender and Conflict Situations The conflict situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate. The shooting of unarmed civilians seems to be the norm of the day. And once more, women and children are the first to pay. The outrage of the Palestinian people for the loss of their loved ones, and before them the loss of their land, and for the manipulation of the peace process to maximise Israeli interests, have reawakened the "intifatha" with more anger. And the killing of the two Israeli soldiers by "street walkers" (while Palestinian soldiers were desperately trying to protect them) is a sign - justified or not - of how much sufferance these people have had to face and are still facing: "During the last week, Israeli soldiers and settlers killed 17 Palestinians, three of whom are children. More than one thousand were injured, many with life-long disabilities and irrecoverable injuries. Muayad Usama Jawarish, a 12 year old from Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper with a gun silencer. Muayad was returning from school with his school bag on his back. Jewish settlers killed 28 years old Farid Nasasrah, and injured three members of his family, while they were picking olives from their farm in Beit Foriek Village near Nablus. Witnesses said that Israeli soldiers who hurried to the site, protected the settlers and hindered medical aid to the injured. As Israeli and settler violence escalates, Israeli army and settlers raided many mosques. Israeli settlers burnt the mosque of Howarah village in Nablus district, a town which has been under siege and is running out of food supplies and medicine. Israeli settlers have written, “Muahamad (the prophet) is a pig” on walls in the city of Hebron. Last Friday, closure was tightened on Jerusalem, old city of Jerusalem and Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), and males under the age of 40 were not allowed to enter Al-Haram for prayer. Hundreds of Muslims prayed in the streets opposite the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Muslims are not allowed to worship in their holy sites, and their places of worship are burnt and execrated" (Miftah). It is hard to speak of gender and human rights, with people who are seeing all that they posses and care for taken or at threat that it can be taken at any time. No international laws have saved them in the past, thus, it is hard to convince them to belive in them now, when once more world leaders are not delivering justice to them. The different Summits organised to find a solution between Israeli and Palestinian leaders have failed in their goals. The UN Security Council condemnation of Israeli use of force against Palestinians did not affect the situation. Many Palestinians and Arabs hoped that the Arab Summit will produce some effective action plan but as the discussion around the outcomes of this summit was going-on Israeli army bombarded Palestinian villages with armed soldiers, helicopters and even tanks, as Palestinian witnesses report. **************************************************** 2. YEMEN: Engendering the Constitution In view of the discourse of constitutional amendments in Yemen, the Sisters Arabic Forum, a Yemeni NGO, formulated a Think-Tank to review from a gender perspective the constitution and its proposed amendments. SAF has created a network of a number of national NGOs and concerned official parties active in promoting gender equality to address the constitutional amendments as a first step to be followed by a review of current enforced laws that influence women's lives including the Personal Status Law, Citizenship Law, Election Law and Labor Law. The first meeting will take place Monday 23 October and a draft of the amendments will be submitted to the Constitutional Committee in charge of making the amendments that will be voted for through a general referendum. **************************************************** 3. EGYPT: Education of Human Rights Conference An International Conference on Human Rights Education in the Arab World was held in Cairo, 13-17 October 2000, to evaluate the achievements of the movement. The Conference was organised by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Research (CIHRS), in collaboration with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN). This conference comes after and as an implementation to the recommendations of the first International Conference of the Arab Human Rights Movement held in Casablanca, April 1999. The event gathered more than a hundred Arab and international experts, observers from regions that have similar experiences and/or similar conditions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as Europe. The Conference investigated the following themes: 1. Evaluate achievements realized during the first half of the UN decade for HRE and examine ways of consolidating it in the second half. 2. Assess methodologies and endeavors carried out by Arab Human Rights NGOs and institutions including watchdog groups as well as development and grassroots NGOs. 3. Evaluate governmental initiatives in this regard, especially in tertiary education, with special reference to Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia in addition to examining ways of reinforcing cooperation between governments and NGOs. 4. Assess the influence of the dominant political culture, including Islamic fundamentalism, on HRE endeavors. 5. Evaluate the role played by religious institutions, the impact of religious intolerance on HRED and to address the prevalent religious culture. 6. Assess the impact restrictions have on the freedom of information and press in the Arab world and examine ways to overcome these impediments (establishing TV channels, radio stations and publishing magazines for the public audience). 7. Assess the implications of human rights manipulation in international politics on HRE. 8. Explore the role literature and fine arts can play in HRE. The recommendations of the conference will constitute a ‘plan of action’ for the Arab Human Rights movement.And a bilingual book will be published to include the proceedings of the conference and its recommendations. *Women Rights Are Human Rights: It was remarkable that most participants in the conference pointed out repeatedly that women's rights are human rights. And they resisted any kind of separation in this regard. This attitude was present during the different workshops and through out the preparations for the amendments. It was also expressed, less evidently, the fear of women activists of the obscuring of their causes by the "political" rights that most of the Arab HR movement seems to focus on given the lack of democracy in the region. And that is why there are opinions that although agree on the principle of women rights being inseparable from human rights, they still see the need to point out women's rights separately from the rest of the crowd because of the gravity of women's status. **************************************************** 4. KUWAIT: University Seeking More Funds to Complete Gender Segregation Authorities at Kuwait University have told the emirate's cabinet that 130 million dollars more are needed to implement fully a controversial law banning coeducation, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The state-run university said it has implemented a "considerable portion" of the legislation stipulating that strict gender segregation must be enforced by July 2001, Al Qabas said. The bill, passed in 1996 by a strong Islamic-tribal alliance in parliament, gave the government five years "to develop existing buildings... to guarantee that male and female students do not mix on campus." A number of conservative MPs had threatened to question liberal Education Minister Yussef Al Ibrahim if he failed to implement the law. Kuwait University is the only university in the emirate and offers free education to some 20,000 students. It receives its annual budget of some 350 million dollars from the government. Earlier this year, parliament voted to allow the establishment of private universities and the opening of branches for foreign universities, but insisted these too must apply full segregation. A report presented by the university to the cabinet said that it had already achieved segregation of the sexes in lecture halls, libraries, cafeterias, admission halls and extra-curricula activities. (© AFP - Aabia On-Line) **************************************************** 5. JORDAN: Putting Women College Graduates to Work By Rana Husseini - Jordan Times For the 15,000 Jordanian women who enroll in various two-year programmes at community colleges each year, but do not find employment, a new pilot project may be a blessing. The `Enhancing Technical Training and Employment Opportunities for Jordanian Women Project' hopes to put women community college graduates to work, using the expertise acquired at school. Funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Japanese Women in Development Fund, the project aims to increase the sustainable employment of women through the development and pilot testing of a gender relevant and Labor market responsive technical training programme in selected community colleges. “This project aims to promote women's participation in all economic spheres of life, by creating educational and vocational training in order to enhance employment opportunities in non-traditional sectors,” stated the National Project Coordinator Carol Seikaly. Seikaly was speaking during a one-day forum that was patronised by Her Majesty Queen Noor on “Employment Perspectives: Women in Growing Economic Sectors.” “Studies have revealed that around 38 per cent of community college female graduates are unemployed,” explained Seikaly. A 1996 World Bank study of higher education in Jordan indicated that women community college graduates experienced the highest rates of unemployment with 38.4 per cent of women graduates finding employment after concluding their education. Slightly more than 27 per cent of women with secondary education and 24 per cent of women with preparatory school find employment after education. Initiated this year, the project will be implemented in three phases. Phase one, she said, involves identifying two training programmes at two community colleges in Zarqa and Ajloun. This phase will identify potential high-demand and expanding sectors and/or gender-relevant employment, so that training curricula can be developed at the two colleges that meets these criteria. The third and final phase will focus on promoting public awareness and advocacy of the programme, that will be implemented through designing and implementing public awareness campaigns targeting students, employers and societal segments. She said that, based on studies in Jordan, there are four emerging economic sectors: Information technology, tourism, the textile industry and banking and finance. “The project will study the needs of the local market and focus on providing women community college students with the needed skills to fit the Labor market's demands,” she stated. According to Seikaly, studies have shown that four main factors limit women's participation in Labor. Among them are the social and cultural barriers, where some social norms may negatively affect women's Labor force participation, since social traditions still focus on preparing women for a role as a wives and mothers, she said. Others are institutional barriers such as Labor laws that restrict women from working at night; that compel employers to pay women for maternity leave; and that require employers to compensate a woman employee if she leaves employment to get married. Vice President of Al Balqa Applied Science University Isa Khubeis, which is implementing the project in two of its community colleges, said although women have achieved high education levels in Jordan, “they still experience low rates of Labor force participation and high rates of unemployment.” In addition, he said women's employment is restricted to certain sectors, mainly education, manufacturing and health and/or social work. “The challenge lies in ensuring that women are provided with the opportunities to obtain the skills required to effectively compete for employment in the growing private sector,” Khubeis told the attendance. This, he maintained, requires attitudinal changes towards women's participation in the Labor force, job creation in the private sector and the adaptation of education and training opportunities to effectively respond to Labor market requirements. Participants at the conference are representatives of Al Balqa Applied University, the deans of Zarqa and Ajloun community colleges, project management members and key figures from relevant economic sectors. They are expected to recommend types of jobs available to community college women in each sector, the skills candidates must acquire to qualify for each job, external obstacles hindering the effective employment of candidates and elements of the most effective training schemes to impart qualifying skills. (© 2000 Jordan Times) **************************************************** 6. ANNOUNCEMENT: Kuwaiti Women On-Line! The web site of Women Social and Cultural Society of Kuwait has been launched. The site has information about the Society and upcoming events. The society is convening a Conference during April 2001 and it welcomes participation of specialists in the field of women political rights, the role of women is social, cultural and economic development. The address of the web site is www.kuwaitiwomen.org. You will find the registration form in the web site under upcoming events. _______________________________________________________________________________ NAD Regional News: A newsletter that covers current Arab issues and related press news on development and gender. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of NAD. To subscribe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For info on NAD write to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> NAD © 2000 All Rights Reserved. ================================================== Nisswa and Development Organisation (NAD) Tel/Fax: + 39 06 68212631 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://nadnet.org (under construction) "Together for a sustainable development, gender equality, and a just globalisation" ==================================================
NAD Regional News: October 15-22 \Focus:Gender
Nisswa and Development Organisation Tue, 24 Oct 2000 13:46:43 -0700
