General Union of Palestinian Women

The National Strategy for the Advancement of Palestinian Women

Existing Problems: An Overview:

The Palestinian people have been deprived of their right to formulate their own national laws and legislations as a result of being subjected to an amalgamation of laws inherited from different historical periods: Ottoman , British Mandate, Jordanian and Egyptian laws, and Israeli military orders. In addition, Palestinians in the diaspora are subject to the laws of their host countries. This multiplicity of laws led to the lack of a consistent and uniform Palestinian legal reference. Furthermore there are many gaps in these laws that have negative effects on Palestinian women.

Israel's refusal to abide by binding international resolutions and agreements signed with the P.L.O and the PNA. hindered Palestinian women from practicing their right to participate in drafting laws and legislations.

Objectives:

1. To set Palestinian legislations that would protect, and consolidate women's rights
and to amend existing laws according to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.
2. To guarantee an independent judicial authority to reinforce the fundamentals of a democratic civil society in accordance with the principle of separation of the three powers: the executive, legislative and judicial.
3. To ensure legal awareness of all aspects of the society, particularly women's rights as they are human rights.

Procedures:

A. Public Laws.

1. To demand the inclusion of specialized women bodies in the legal committees to review draft laws concerning the protection of women.
2. To secure a labour law that guarantees work rights in compliance with international and Arab Labour Organization standards.
3. To amend insurance and wage laws to guarantee that children inherit their mothers' work benefits and credits in the same manner as men.
4. To establish a fund for women or a social security fund to handle compensations for work accidents, unemployment, old age, maternity, and children allowances.
5. To guarantee women's legal rights for social security and inheritance rights.

B. Penal Code

1. To guarantee gender equality before the law.
2. To consider crimes of honor as premeditated crimes that have no legal justification.
3. To inflict maximum penalty on crimes of rape and adultery.
4. To deal with cases of delinquency, especially those of female youths, in specialized courts and by qualified judges in this field, to set up reform centers, and to provide sufficient care for both male and female delinquents.

C. Law of Personal Status:

1. To establish a Personal Status Department concomitant with advancing the status of women and their development.
2. To encourage the process of "Ijtihad" (particular to Islamic law regarding Personal Status issues). To impose restrictions and proceedings in cases of polygamy.
3. To establish codes of law for religious courts to secure brief trial procedures and stands of evidence by which women can attain their rights.
4. To raise the minimal marriage age to eighteen years.
5. To establish a mandatory medical examination for couples before marriage.
6. To promote jurisprudence proficiency in matters of personal status through creating a specialized judiciary training institute.
7. To set regulations and procedures that enable women to get urgent alimony, through a government affiliated fund, association, or bank that would be responsible for collecting it from the husband.
8. To formulate laws which give women the right to extend citizenship to husbands and children.

D. Societal awareness:
1. To spread legal awareness in schools through the social studies and to introduce a course on legal affairs at the university level.
2. To create a government department whose aim is to carry out legal researches, extend legal advice and implement a literacy program for women.

E. Violence against Women:
objectives:

1. To be committed to the provisions of Human Rights and Child Rights documents as women's rights are human rights.
2. To research the causes and outcomes of social violence directed towards women and the effectiveness of preventive procedures in this concern.
3. To protect Palestinian women from the violent effects of occupation.

Procedures:

1. To demand that the Palestinian political leadership sign the international convention on the "Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women", issued by the United Nations, 1979, taking into consideration the reservations by members of the
Arab League.
2. To develop legislations committed to human rights that penalize violence and to review legislations that affect the life of women and to propose recommendations that ensure the progress of women.
3. To support and encourage education that is based on democratic concepts, equality and tolerance.
4. To provide legal and psychological centers for women as well as centers for women subject to violence and to develop a specialized cadre on familial violence directed
against women.
5. To provide legal educational and awareness programs and to direct the official mass media towards eliminating all appearances of discrimination against women.