Lebanon

President

Anissa Najjar

PO BOX 576

Beirut

najjarag@adm.net.lb

Fax: +961 86 3636

Vice-President

Samira Khoury

P.O. Box 113-6615

Beirut

sk05@aub.edu.lb

Tel: +961 1 802 193

Fax: +961 1 802 193

Treasurer

Effat Beaini

IEC Member

Roula Zoubiane

Karakol El-Druze, Algiers (Jaza’er) St.

Beudun-Sawaf Bldg, 4th Floor

Beirut

roulazoubiane@yahoo.com

Tel: +961 3 723 852

What does your section need from the 2006 IEC and what are the specific decisions that you would like to see this IEC make to further your work?

1. We would like this IEC to be an opportunity to meet with all our sisters and to share ideas and future plans about our global shared priorities and so that the best ways would be implemented in order to see them achieved.

2. We urge the Middle East Committee to find the time to meet during this IEC in order to:

   1. define its priorities and main goals.

   2. Set up a frame work in which each member would be in charge of a specific task.

   3. To activate the communication between the MEC members on regular bases so that they can play a key role in their respective countries when it comes to strengthen peace, freedom and human rights.

   4. To issue a statement and a common set of resolutions calling for the following: 1- The end of the boiling points in the region such as violence and state of war in Irak, the immediate withdraw of the American forces and their allies from Irak. 2- The end of the violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories. 3- The unconditioned and immediate release of the prisoners from Abou-Ghuraib, Guantanamo and Israeli jails .

5. To enhance sustainable development projects in Middle Eastern countries, aiming at empowering women, ensuring their participation to the decision making process, calling for the implementation of human rights and true democratization of the civil society.

6. To decide a plan of action that WILPF International would be responsible of in order to bring peace and freedom to the region.

Geneva Office

We would like feedback on the section mailing

We have been receiving the section mailing both through e-mail and snail mail, on regular basis. It was always very informative and we thank Geneva office for all the hard work.

What information from the Geneva Office would be helpful to you?

*

What do you see as priority issues for the work of the Geneva Office?

To inform, network, design plan of action serving WILPF global shared priorities, fund raising for major meetings such as IEC and congress.

Does your section work on WILPF’s International Program?

Yes

What is your main focus?

We are working on political capacity building, peace building and women empowerment aiming at increasing WILPF membership mainly among Young women through a partnership project between Lebanon and Norway.

Global Economic Justice?

Yes

How?

WILPF Lebanon hope in the future to establish a committee concerned with issues pertaining to global economic justice, mainly in Africa.

Environmental Sustainability?

Yes

How?

In accordance with WILPF International programme, WILPF Lebanon has been greatly concerned with environmental sustainability to the point that it devoted to this topic, every empowerment training course that it undertook in the past three years, aiming at increasing its new members awareness about this issue which suffers in Lebanon from worsening pollution.

Disarmament and Demilitarization

Yes

How?

Since Lebanon does not have any atomic, nuclear nor sophisticated weaponry, advocacy in disarmament might seem irrelevant. However, WILPF Lebanon is concerned with disarmament on more than one level.

Recently, the size of the Lebanese Army has being reduced significantly at a time when the Lebanese armed forces have to show that they can maintain effective security throughout the country whose instability has been dreadfully increased. Undoubtedly, WILPF Lebanon shares with Lebanese citizens the need to see Lebanese armed forces doing their utmost to ensure peace and security throughout the entire national territory.

Therefore, WILPF Lebanon can not call for demobilization, when the country is sharing borders with a state heavily militarized and with which it is in a constant state of war.

On the other hand and even though military questions can not be easily approached in Lebanon, WILPF Lebanon already advocated in demobilization and consequently disarmament when it called for a shortening of the military service into a civil one which would be considered as an important step toward the strengthening of the civil society process.

In addition, and within the disarmament trend which it is just starting, WILPF Lebanon has established a small committee, constituted mainly of young members, and particularly concerned with conducting a survey aiming at collecting data about the landmines layed by the Israeli army during its 22 years of occupation of South-Lebanon.

On the other hand, and in order to increase our young and adult members’ knowledge about United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) activities, WILPF Lebanon intend to offer them a training course focused on disarmament and non-proliferation education which, as “an important force in bringing about enlightened change, can be such a force to help our world move from militarism to a culture of peace”. (E. Balantine and F. Hill, Disarmament forum, 2001).

Finally, some of the new members – mainlythose who have attended GBS in 2004 – are particularly interested in following all relevant documents placed – thanks to our secretary general Susy Snyder – online at WILPF Reaching Critical Will project website.

Water?

Yes

How?

WILPF Lebanon has established a very small committee concerned with water problems both locally and regionally. This committee has conducted a study about water resources’ situation in the country.

SCR 1325/Women and Peace and Security Issues?

Yes

How?

SCR1325: within our partnership with Norway, we have been working on a project aiming at empowering women in the field of peace. We have designed intensive training session which has already started in the Chouf-Mount Lebanon (a post-conflict region) aiming at attracting young members and inviting them to workshops undertaken by experts and evolving around topics such as citizenship, human and women rights, conflict resolution, sustainable development, violence against women, etc. we have succeeded to gather around 25 university students who will continue on attending the workshops until the end of July 2006.

Furthermore, WILPF Lebanon has participated to a sit-in, with the mothers of the Lebanese prisoners in the Syrian jails, in order to call for their immediate release. Old and young members were present in the city center of Beirut in front of the house of the United Nations where the mothers are daily demonstrating.

Women’s political participation?

Yes

How?

We have been attending all the meetings and events held by the Lebanese Council of Women, especially those aiming at enhancing women participation in the decision making process not only in the municipalities but also within the parliament.

Sexual and Gender based violence issues?

Yes

How?

In the training sessions we design, we always devote one or two workshops aiming at increasing awareness about gender based violence issues.

What is the political situation in your country?

The political situation in our country is very complicated and critical. However, the national dialogue has started more than three months ago, gathering the representatives and leaders of all the communities and aiming at finding solutions to the political problems that the country is passing through.