North Africa and Middle East

Oxfam calls for increased participation of women and civil society organizations in peace process

The Geneva II Conference, which opens today, must deliver real change in the lives of ordinary Syrians, says the worldwide development organization Oxfam.

Conference of Syrian women, convened by UN Women and Netherlands, ends with strong recommendations for upcoming peace talks
 
(Geneva, 14 January) A two-day meeting to support women's participation and voice in the Syrian peace process, convened in Geneva by UN Women together with the Government of the Netherlands, ended today with a statement by Syrian women civil society members and activists.

Egyptians were voting in a referendum on the country’s draft constitution on Tuesday and Wednesday, a document that would enshrine unprecedented gender equality for women.

Since the so-called Arab Spring shook Egypt and the region to its foundations in 2010, the roles and rights of women in the Middle East’s most populous country have been under the spotlight.  

Egyptian women have been the worst sufferers in the revolution and the rise of Islamist factions has seen curtailment of the rights of women, said a leading women's activist from the North African nation whose organisation has been quietly operating in the country's southern region to empower women through training in traditional crafts to enable them stand on their own feet.

Tunis — Tunisia voted Monday to enshrine gender equality in its draft constitution, a key step towards safeguarding its relatively progressive laws on women's rights, with the ruling Islamists under pressure to compromise. "All male and female citizens have the same rights and duties. They are equal before the law without discrimination," states article 20 of the text, which was approved by 159 lawmakers out of the 169 who voted.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has been working to strengthen political parties, civil society, media and other key democratic institutions in Algeria since 1997.

When citizens in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) took to the streets in early 2011 in demonstrations that toppled autocratic regimes, one after another, a new democratic rule with more rights and representation for all, including women, were chief among the demands. The people of the region seized onto the importance of political empowerment and many saw an opportunity within the newly evolving political order to positively impact universal human rights, especially the rights of women and ethnic minorities.