Founding Statement

Because of the violence that women are facing in different countries, women MPs from different Arab countries from: Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt met and discussed thoroughly the mechanism of uniting efforts to combat violence against women.

Their discussions were extended to include a series of meetings including: a conference in London from 28-30 January 2014, and a conference in Amman from 26-28 March, 2014. The Parliamentarians discussed the phenomenon of violence that Arab women suffer from and its different shapes whether: physical, economic, mental, or workplace violence. They discussed in particular family violence. Such shapes of violence can infringe on women’s dignity, demean their humanity, and deprive them from their basic rights, which were decreed by the divine laws, national constitutions, treaties, agreements, and international covenants.

The participants agreed in consensus that Arab women are vulnerable to different shapes of discrimination and violations of their basic rights. There agreed that the moral and political responsibility entails that there should be a group action and efforts coordination to combat violence against women through an institutional framework that unites the efforts of Arab women MPs, people representatives, organizations, and active societies in the field of defending women rights. Thus to fulfill this endeavor and put it into an institutionalized framework, women MPs decided to establish the Coalition of Women MPs from Arab Countries to Combat Violence against Women to improve Arab women situation and determine the methods of supporting them, promoting their role, promoting their participation in building Arabian societies, and achieving their goals in terms of comprehensive development, freedom, equality, and social justice.

In particular, the Coalition was established to work on achieving the following objectives:

  1. Combating violence against women as well as spreading awareness among parliamentarians, people, and the public opinion regarding the rights of Arab women in living a life free of violence. As well, getting rid of all forms of discrimination against women, promoting equality between women and men, and empowering women.
  2. Considering violence against women a violation of basic human rights, and a form of discrimination which requires joint efforts of female and male parliamentarians.
  3. Placing the issue of violence against women among the legislative priorities to prevent this scourge, prosecute the perpetrators with deterrent and effective ways, and provide legal and social protection for female victims.
  4. Supporting organizations and societies that are concerned with the implementation of the laws to get rid of violence against women within families.
  5. Exchanging information and coordinating joint actions among parliamentarians with the participation of relevant civil society organizations.