On the International Human Rights Day “Protection from the Beginning” Launches Its Closing Statement

Roadmap Towards a Uniform Legislation, and VAW Services with Effective and Sustainable Access

On the International Human Rights Day, The New Woman Foundation concludes its campaign on protection policies between legislations and services. During the campaign, several discussions were held with experts, as well as groups and individuals concerned with proposing efficient interventions against VAW at the levels of legislations and services.

In the light of the discussion conclusions, we further scrutinize developing the roadmap in the levels of policies and legislation. We also highlight the importance ofs renewing the international strategy against VAW to include new indicators that respond to what has been accomplished in the past ten years at the national level regarding VAW interventions and prioritizing the new national strategies to continue working towards eliminating VAW.

We also underscore the importance of promulgating a uniform law against VAW, especially that there have been recommendations in the previous strategy against violence, as well as the 2030 women’s empowerment strategy and the latest issue of the human development report, referring to prioritizing promulgating a uniform law against VAW. We reaffirm NWF’s full readiness to enter rounds of dialogue and discussion with all stakeholders.

We further add to the roadmap the importance of the Egyptian state signing ILO’s 190 Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. Our call on the state to sign the convention comes in the light of the national strategies’ concern with adopting interventions to improve the indicator for decent work, which is one of the SDGs.

At the conclusion of our campaign “Protection from the beginning”, we cannot fail to highlight the importance of the roadmap in passing legislations for protecting female children from sexual violence and abuse, namely a legislation that adopts policies against child marriage and all harmful practices against female children. This includes enforcing the latest amendments to the child law pertaining to elimination of FGM, as well as adopting national media campaigns that revisit the conventional power dynamics between men and women in the cultural and societal axioms, promoting values of gender equality, and reinforcing the status of women in the family.

In the light of developing the roadmap towards eliminating VAW, we cannot fail to highlight the importance of decentralizing the services and extend service coverage across the country to accommodate the increasing rates of VAW, as well as enhancing the capacity of the first responders and increasing their awareness of, and sensitivity towards eliminating VAW.

For further scrutiny in developing the roadmap, we issue a recommendation booklet, which can be downloaded on our website, that documents VAW elimination interventions of the highest priorities at seven levels.