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Preventing violence against girls in Lebanon gets spotlight
13 Mar 2009 12:04:10 GMT
 Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe office (MEERO)
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Recommendations on how to prevent violence against girls will be released soon. Photo by Patricia Mouamar.
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Recommendations on how to prevent violence against girls will be released soon. Photo by Patricia Mouamar.
World Vision MEERO, http://meero.worldvision.org

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World Vision gathered prominent media stakeholders, local and international non-governmental organisations and governmental organisations to debate on ways to prevent violence against girls last Tuesday.

The roundtable, conducted in partnership with KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation and the Higher Council for Childhood, focused on: 'Women and Men Working Together to Combat Violence against Girls' – the theme for this year's International Women's Day.

'International Women's Day gives us an excellent platform to celebrate the progress made on gender equality, but at the same time, to call for a change in negative attitudes towards girls and women,' said Patricio Cuevas-Parra, World Vision Lebanon Advocacy Manager. 'Throughout this roundtable discussion, we seek to analyse the local context regarding violence against girls, linking this issue from national legislation to the international conventions and treaties that Lebanon has signed and endorsed.'

Violence emerges in varying forms from physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence to traditional practices like early marriage. Proper legislation on domestic violence is quasi absent in Lebanon as it is considered a private affair in which the government must not interfere.

'It is difficult to understand how a country can be tolerant towards violence against girls in a context where a girl's body and honour is of great importance to her future,' said one of the attendees.

'Legislation is the only way to secure sustainability of any action to ban violence against girls,' said Rana Noueiri, an NGO attendee. 'Building capacities of policemen or teachers is important, but people might change.'

"Having laws in place is not enough," said Cuevas-Parra, 'Specific mechanisms should be found in order to implement them.'

"Girls should be taught to say 'No'," said Ghida Anani, Kafa's programme coordinator.

At the end of the roundtable, a set of recommendations on how to prevent violence against girls were agreed upon and will soon be officially released to the public. The recommendations highlighted the importance of launching a national campaign involving the Ministry of Social Affairs, civil organisations, and Media.

World Vision, as part of its mandate to speak on behalf of children who are suffering violence, is building public awareness about the problem of violence that affects hundreds of thousands of children in Lebanon and emphasises the key role of the government and local and international entities in addressing the causes of the violence. World Vision plays an active role in developing national advocacy initiatives to influence government officials, policy makers, stakeholders and communities to protect children from violence.

Research in World Vision's development programmes has indicated there is a strong correlation between children's capacity to participate and their capacity to protect themselves from violence; when children understand their rights and responsibilities, they are empowered to speak up and take action when their rights are violated. This finding has particular importance for girls, who are typically the most marginalised and exploited members of their communities.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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