Resources

27/10/2009

2004 Moroccan Family Law (Moudawana)

This unofficial English translation of the 2004 Moroccan Family Law (Moudawana) was prepared by a team of English and Arabic speaking lawyers at the Global Rights head office in Washington D.C. and their field office in Rabat, and a professional Arabic-English Moroccan translator.

26/10/2009

Tools for Activists: The letter writing campaign

There are different forms of public participation. In addition to demonstrations and rallies, there are other efficient tools to demand change, such as poster and postcard campaigns, calls for action campaigns, petitions and direct lobbying. This WLUML Tool for Activists focuses on just one form of public participation: the letter writing campaign or solidarity letter.

26/10/2009

CEDAW

The Covention on the Elimination of all forms of Discriminations Against Women adopted in 1969 by the United Nations General Assembly is described as an international bill of rights for women. The Covention establishes an agenda of action for putting an end to sex-based discrimination.

26/10/2009

Bahrain: Women's Struggle Against Artificial Reforms

Although women in Bahrain have had access to education and have participated in elections for eighty years now, even holding positions in government, Ghada Jamsheer, President of the Women's Petition Committee in Bahrain, denounces the flagrant bias stemming from the assumption that this equates to women's full emancipation.

26/10/2009

The Constitution of Bahrain

The Islamic Sharia, in so far as it is interpreted and exploited as the principal source of legislation in Bahrain, has a negative impact on women's rights and dignity in the private sphere. With regards to the public sphere, women are entitled to participate in public affairs and enjoy political rights including the rights to vote and to stand for elections.

26/10/2009

Bound and Gagged by the Algerian Family Code

Marieme Hélie-Lucas, writing in 1989, talks about an alarming change in the situation of women in Algeria. A ‘Family Code’ law was introduced which removed many of women’s basic human rights. She also speaks about contraception, the problem of abandoned children and the consequences for women of the insistence on virginity at marriage.

26/10/2009

Algerian women, citizenship and the 'Family Code'

This article traces Algerian women's struggle for full citizenship after the national liberation struggle ended in 1962. The Algerian Family Code, which became law in 1984, defines women as minors under the law and as existing only in so far as they are daughters, mothers or wives.

26/10/2009

Algeria: 20 Years is Enough

In 2003, the '20 ans Barakat' campaign was initiated by the association of the same name. The aim of the Campaign was to inform and raise awareness among the people in general and women in particular about the Algerian Family Code (personal status laws).

26/10/2009

The Constitution of Afghanistan

Since 2004 the Afghan Constitution has provided women with equal protection before the law. However, many discriminatory practices are disguised as 'Islamic' and, therefore, lawful. These include husbands deciding whether their wives should work, and a father having the right to prohibit his daughters from attending school or forcing them into marriage, all of them based on conservative interpretations of the Quran.

20/10/2009

UN Resolution 1325

The adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 was watershed in the evolution of international women's rights and peace and security issues.