Local Group Working toward Justice for Palestinian Women

Last month, during a conference of some 200 people held in Gaza on International Women’s Day, the Society Voice Foundation (SVF) received consensus support for its draft legislation criminalizing honor killings and all forms of violence against women.

While the draft has yet to become a new law, SVF has made considerable progress pushing this issue forward by creating a steering committee to work on legislation, holding workshops and training sessions to educate people about the law, and empowering 150 young, mostly women activists to advocate for important reforms.

“Dealing with honor crime legislation has contributed to improving the work of SVF in a number of areas,” said Ibrahim Natil, director of the Gaza-based NGO, which applied for and received a MEPI Local Grant to conduct its project called “Enhancing Women’s Leadership and Civic Democratic Participation: Campaigning to Stop Honor Killings.”

SVF’s work was based on a well-designed project whose primary objective was to empower women by developing their ability to engage in the democratic process, including an emphasis on freedom of expression.  Through training sessions and awareness campaigns – using radio, newspapers, and the Internet – the participants learned how to effectively disseminate information and advocate for new legislation.

Activities, which include holding more than 20 town hall meetings to discuss and debate the issues, were carried out against a backdrop of , hostilities, violence, and other difficulties facing the Gaza community.

“We were delighted to see a local organization such as ours receive a US Government grant from MEPI, given the sociopolitical context in Gaza at this time,” said Natil, who emphasized that SVF’s collaboration with MEPI and the US Consulate in Jerusalem could be considered as “one of the most successful experiences since the establishment of the foundation.”

As part of its project, SVF developed networks among local NGOs, community stakeholders, and the media to support Palestinian women trying to overcome traditional and financial constraints.  The project also promoted freedom of expression by training young women to prepare, design, and broadcast information through the independent press aimed at outreach and education to the community.

A particular effort was made to help eliminate legal and technical obstacles to the freedom of the press, including the abolishment of censorship.  SVF conducted awareness-raising campaigns among young journalists and pushed for unimpeded access to the Internet to enable journalists to properly cover the issue of honor crimes.

Meanwhile, SVF created a steering committee to garner input from various women’s networks committed to these issues and organized meetings to adopt a consensus methodology toward implementing the major goals of the project.  The steering committee developed a transparent mechanism, made several recommendations for amendments to the existing legislation, and proposed a new draft law criminalizing honor killings and all forms of violence against women.

By holding conferences, workshops, and public meetings, SVF’s panel of activists advocated for amendments to the existing law to conform to international conventions dealing with women’s rights.  Before submitting their recommendations to policy-makers, the panel discussed its findings with various stakeholders at public events, such as the series of town hall meetings, as well as on live radio programs and through publications as a way to raise awareness among citizens on the issues. 

Now that this project has ended, Natil said: “I hope SVF will continue its cooperation with MEPI to make progress on good governance, women’s empowerment, and other key reforms.”