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Op-ed by Karama Founder and Chair Hibaaq Osman

Appeared 30 March 2010 in Common Ground News

Cairo - In the halls of the United Nation's New York bureau, officials have been considering a proposal to unify the UN’s many organisations promoting women’s equality and rights into a single “gender entity”. This entity would have a greatly increased budget – exactly how much is still being debated – and would be headed by an executive at the rank of Under-Secretary General.

Op-Ed by Hibaaq Osman, Founder and Chair of Karama

Appeared 2 April 2010 in Bikya Masr

Last month saw a setback for integration of Arab women in the workforce when members of Egypt’s State Council, the country’s highest legal authority, voted overwhelmingly to ban female law graduates from joining their ranks. While women have served as judges in Egypt since 2002, this news is a stark reminder that the story of women’s full equality in Egypt’s professional sphere is often two steps forward, one step back.

Karama supports many national action plans promoted by our partners in the education, law, culture, media and economic realms in order to study the socio-economic dimensions of violence against women and analyze its manifestations in society in all fields,  These initiatives are key in cultivating social forces to challenge violence against women and empower women to participate as a major party in this confrontation.

After holding several preliminary meetings to discuss the action plans and drafting of the work protocol among partner organizations in each realm, Karama partners carried out several activities.  The following shares details of work proposed, developed and implemented with Karama’s support, listed by realm.

Economic Realm

Measuring the Economic Cost of Violence against women

The following is the text of Karama's oral statement, which was approved for a High Level Plenary at the 54th Commission on the Status of Women:

On behalf of the Middle East Caucus, we commend and welcome the Commission’s call for the intensification of efforts by governments to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action 15 years after its adoption by 189 governments, CEDAW and its Optional Protocol, the Millennium Development Goals, and other international standards to enact gender equality and women’s empowerment.  There still remains a wide gap between the commitments made by Arab governments to these international agreements and their implementation.