In January, Lebanese and Palestinian NGOs, coordinated by Karama, submitted a shadow report to the CEDAW Committee that analyzed the situation of Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon through the lens of government responsibilities under CEDAW. Karama member Aziza Khaldi delivered the group’s recommendations to the Committee in an oral statement and lobbied Committee members to focus attention on discrimination against refugee women.
In its concluding remarks, the CEDAW Committee urged the government of Lebanon to consider accession to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol and create laws and regulations protecting refugee women in accordance with international standards. The Committee further required that Lebanon report progress in this area in its next periodic report.
“This is a big step towards building a legal argument for state responsibility to refugee women,” says Natalie Forcier BeVille, a researcher in the field of international human rights law.
“By requiring states to report on activities pertaining to non-citizens, the Committee is asserting that the rights contained in CEDAW are not restricted only to citizens, and reiterating that prohibition of gender-based discrimination has become customary international law.”
The Committee also urged the Lebanese government to:
- Fully integrate a gender-sensitive approach throughout the process of granting asylum/ refugee status; and
- Implement targeted measures for refugee women and girls and internally displaced women and girls, within specific timetables, to improve access to education, employ-ment, health and housing and to protect them from all forms of violence and to monitor their implementation.
The Committee is now considering requiring allnational reports to include information on measures to eliminate discrimination against refugee women. Read the full shadow report or contact info@elkarama.org for more information.