Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Establishing effective partnerships

		7 - 13 November 2002 Issue No. 611 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Establishing effective partnerships
The Second Arab Women's Summit featured gender-equality campaigners from most Arab countries discussing issues of importance to the region's women. Reem Leila reports

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Entitled "Arab Women with a New Vision", the Second Arab Women's Summit brought representatives from the National Council for Women (NCW), the Al-Hariri Foundation and the Arab League, as well as 18 delegations from different Arab countries, to Amman for two days of discussion and work.
The conference, which began on Sunday and was headed by Jordan's Queen Rania Al- Abdallah, discussed the UNDP Arab Human Development Report, strategies for enhancing women's status, and the obstacles facing their progress up to the year 2005. The establishment of the Arab Women's Organisation (AWO), a body set to fall under the umbrella of the Arab League, was also discussed during the summit.
Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and Queen Rania inaugurated the conference. During her speech, Queen Rania proudly announced that laws concerning both Jordanian nationality and women's right to travel had been changed, in addition to the pension law. "Children of a Jordanian mother and a foreign father can now acquire the Jordanian nationality," she declared. "Women will also now have equal rights, since they can travel without the husband's consent. Also women will be having the privilege of keeping her own pension and that of her husband's. In the past women usually were choosing either of them."
Mrs Mubarak expressed her happiness for the Jordanian people and their government regarding these achievements. "These great accomplishments," she said, "are the result of continuous efforts exerted by Arab women. I hope we can do the same regarding the Egyptian nationality law, as it is of top priority on the NCW's agenda. Beginning last year," she added, "Egyptian women have been able to travel and issue their passport without the consent of their husbands or fathers."
Mrs Mubarak spoke about the ways by which Arab women are dealing with emerging global challenges, detailed their accomplishments over the past few years. "It is essential that women should be given the full opportunity to improve their own capabilities," she said. Mrs Mubarak also urged full support for Palestinian and Iraqi women in their efforts to overcome the challenges ahead, before moving on to the summit's main objective: "We have covered extensive ground towards establishing the AWO, which is to be a specialised agency with an independent financial and administrative structure that aims at improving Arab women's status by ensuring their effective role in nation-building," she said. "Till now, only five countries have ratified the AWO treaty; within the coming two weeks, we are hoping that the rest of the Arab countries will ratify it, as we need two more countries so that the organisation can start working legally." The AWO will be working under the umbrella of the Arab League and will utilise the knowledge and experience of experts in women's issues on both the governmental and non- governmental levels.
Queen Rania emphasised that in this era of rapid changes, the only way for Arab women to further advance would be by reinforcing national strengths, and developing a common vision for the future. "We are in dire need for a new Arab region to pass on to our women -- one that provides the promise of peace, development and stability," she said. "This cannot be achieved unless all sectors of society participate, in order to achieve sustainable development."
Lebanese parliamentarian Bahiya Al-Hariri, who is on the board of the Al-Hariri Foundation, as well as the head of the foundation's delegation to the summit, said women's development will not be achieved unless women themselves participate in the development process, preserving their own rights as effective partners in all fields of life.
Princess Lala Mariam, sister of Moroccan King Mohamed VI, expressed similar sentiments.
For his part, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa emphasised the importance of establishing the AWO to facilitate the means by which Arab women will be able to play an effective role in leading their societies.
Farkhonda Hassan, Secretary General of the NCW, and member of the executive committee of the Arab Women's Summit, said that the council has prepared the comprehensive report "From Summit to Summit" on the five forums which were held between the two summits.

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