A newly released United Nations report on women’s rights in 18 countries in the Arab region gave Lebanon a mixed review, praising reforms in some areas while highlighting others where the country continues to lag behind in guaranteeing gender equality.
“We are here today to join women all over the region, demanding respect, equality of opportunity and representation, and an end to violence and harassment - at home, on the streets, in public life and in the workplace,” said Mourad Wahba, chair of the U.N. Development Group for the Arab States, Middle East and North Africa, and director of the U.N. Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Arab States.
The study, Wahba said in a statement, “recognizes the potential of the law to help guarantee the rights of women and girls and support equitable development for all.
“Failing to do so will deprive more than half of our region from achieving their full potential.”
The report outlined advances in some areas - including new legislation addressing domestic violence and sexual harassment - but noted a persistent lack of legal equality between the genders.
For example, the report noted that in at least five Arab countries, rapists may still be exonerated if they marry their victim. While the report credited Lebanon for repealing its “marry your rapist law” in 2017, it noted that an exception remains in cases of statutory rape, or sex with a minor, under Articles 505 and 518 of the penal code.
In the workplace, moreover, Lebanese law guarantees equal pay for equal work for women and men, and prohibits dismissing an employee because she is pregnant.
However, the report noted that women remain barred from working in certain professions considered “arduous or hazardous,” and that labor code protections do not apply to domestic workers.
Lebanon also received credit for eliminating a law that previously allowed for a mitigated sentence of “honor crime” cases in which the victim of violence was found or suspected to have committed adultery.
Lebanon repealed the law in 2011, though penal codes in 11 countries in the region still allow for reduced sentences in such cases, the report said.
The report also highlighted Lebanon’s passage in 2014 of a law criminalizing domestic violence, but noted that the country still lacks a prohibition on marital rape.
Lebanon is one of a few countries in the region that do not explicitly guarantee equal rights for men and women in their constitutions, the report noted. It also said that Lebanon is one of 10 countries in the region that do not give male and female citizens who are married to foreigners equal rights to pass on their nationality to their children.
And the country’s sect-based personal status laws, which govern marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, still give men greater rights than women. Lebanon’s legal code also does not prohibit early marriage for girls, a matter lawmakers are currently studying.
The study was produced in collaboration between the UNDP and the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the U.N. Population Fund and the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
