In an effort to crackdown on violence against women and sexual harassment, the National Council of Women has proposed the establishment of special tribunals and judicial departments. According to Ambassador Mervat Al-Tellawy, the Persident of the NCW, the proposed tribunals are part of a strategy has been formulated to tackle violence against women. This strategy, said the Ambassador, will be announced in the presence of non-governmental organizations, women’s movements, representatives from 12 ministries and Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb in the coming days. In statements to Youm7, Ambassador Al-Tellawy said that the strategy includes the issuance of a new legislative instrument that would aim to punish crimes of violence against women. Currently, for example, Egypt’s law does not consider forced anal penetration as rape. The Ambassador hopes to expand the definition of violence against women in the law to include both mental and physical violence, adding that a proposed definition of violence is “any existing act on a human being, whether physical, sexual or psychological or an act causing suffering to women or girls, or the threat of such acts, whether or not they take place in the public or private sphere.”…
Calls to Establish Tribunal for Women’s Abuse and Harassment in Egypt
April 26, 2015
