News
CEDAW and CRC parallel report preparation and submission workshop
From May 25-27, 2009, a workshop on preparing and submitting parallel reports for the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was held at and sponsored by the Swedish Institute in Alexandria. Participants from Syria, Lebanon Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt gathered together to build their capacity with regard to writing and researching for these types of reports. This workshop was especially significant for the Syrian participants who, through this meeting, wrote a draft shadow report to submit to the CRC committee underlining the issues of the girl child in Syria.
Karama Funds Eight Local Partners
By October, 2009, Karama disbursed grants to support eight action plans proposed by local organizations in Egypt and Jordan. Ten complete action plans were proposed and approved by realms and joint coalitions in five of the nine countries to date. Looking forward, Karama will be providing funds for strategic initiatives in Lebanon, Syria and Sudan. Action plans are proposed by local women’s organizations based within the eleven countries we currently work within and each plan responds to one or more of eight realms identified by Karama as significant in ending violence against women.
Karama to Convene Regional Consultation on Beijing+15 in Cairo
On December 13-14, 2009, in Cairo, Egypt, Karama, UNIFEM Egypt, and the Alliance for Arab Women will convene a two-day 22-country consultation to issue the Regional NGO Shadow Report on the Arab States' fulfillment of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), fifteen years after it was adopted at the UN World Conference on Women in 1995.
NGO representatives from across the Middle East and North Africa will gather in Cairo on December 13th and 14th to assess the regional progress of the BPFA, what has been implemented, challenges and obstacles to implementation, and the role of NGOs. Building from this analysis, the representatives will also issue recommendations and targets related to the Millennium Development Goals, which all UN member states adopted in 2000 and will continue to pursue through 2015.
Commission On the Status of Women (CSW), New York
2-13th March 2009
For the third consecutive year, Karama partners placed Arab women center stage at the United Nations, where Karama's delegation made multiple interventions at the 53rd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. Addressing the 2009 CSW themes of equal participation in decision-making at all levels and equal responsibility for caregiving, the Karama delegation released a policy paper, "Toward an enhanced participation for women in decision-making positions in the Arab World," using the occasion of a high-level speakers' panel co-sponsored by Karama and UNIFEM, an international press briefing, and meetings with the Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Gender Issues, the head of the New York Office of the UN High Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, and the Chair of the UN CEDAW Committee.
Interventions and Advocacy by the Karama Delegation at CSW53
Karama's policy paper, fact sheet, and press release presented its solutions to the lack of net growth of women's seats in governments noted between 2007 and 2008 in the Arab region, giving it the lowest global standing with regard to women's equal representation in decision-making. Karama organized formal and informal communications and interventions at CSW to share its approach and to encourage high-level support of proposed initiatives.
Karama Advises Governments How to Increase Women's Participation
At the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Karama and the UN focused special attention on the pursuit of equal roles for women and men in decision-making at all levels. Nowhere is this pursuit more paramount than the Arab region, where women hold just 9.1% of government seats.
As Karama is an initiative to end violence against women in the Arab region, the Karama delegation took a keen interest in this issue at CSW. At Karama's panel, "Women and Decision-making in the Arab Region: What Governments, Institutions, and Donors Can Do to Fulfill Their Commitments" co-sponsored by UNIFEM, delegates brought their recommendations as Arab women leaders and activists before an audience of more than 100 parliamentarians, government mission representatives, and leaders of UN agencies and NGOs.
CSW53 Oral Statement
Karama partner Azza Kamel of ACT in Egypt was selected to present an oral statement pertaining to CSW53’s priority theme of equal sharing of responsibilities between men and women with particular regard to HIV/AIDS and childcare on behalf of the Western Asia Caucus. The statement that follows was delivered to governments present at the annual meeting of CSW and urged them to repeal discriminatory laws and address stigma directed toward HIV-positive women:
On behalf of the Western Asia Caucus, we commend and welcome the Commission’s call for the intensification of efforts by governments to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, and other international obligations to promote equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS. There remains a wide gap between the targets set out by relevant international agreements and the reality of women’s lives on the ground.
International Women's Day: Ending Violence Against Women
By Adam Makary
Al Jazeera English conducted an interview with Hibaaq Osman, the chair of Karama, on March 8, International Women's Day.
In many countries women are active participants in the political process and have made progress toward some economic equality. However, women's rights to life, to physical integrity, to health, to education, to freedom from violence, remains largely unfulfilled.
Nowhere is this more evident than for women living in poverty.
International Women's Day, March 8, is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world.
Karama’s CSW Press Release
For the third consecutive year, women activists and leaders have joined together as Karama, an initiative across the Middle East and North Africa to build constituencies to end violence against women—an initiative which has doubled in size and strength since the organization formed in 2005.
From Cairo: What I Heard in Obama's Words
by Hibaaq Osman, founder of Karama ('Dignity') and the Arab Women's Fund
Cairo, June 4th 2009
In the Middle East, people are used to good words not amounting to anything, so we have to be careful with our expectations. However, if there is one man who is going to change the relationship between the Muslim world and the US, everyone is now betting on Obama.
I have been working on human rights and US foreign policy in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, from one Bush to another Bush, Clinton and now Obama—four presidents in all during my adult life. Today, Barack Hussein Obama eclipsed all the presidents of the past.
The five reasons why: