Appeal from women members of the Arab Regional Center of Women´s International Democratic Federation (WIDF)

The women’s organizations members of the Arab Regional Center of the Women´s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) and other active women’s organizations that are members of the Federation, cultural and medical organizations, social and mass organizations, trade union and professional federations, announce that , this is a time when women in our Arab region are involved in the development process of their countries of origin, today they are doing everything possible to help their societies to get out of the serious health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and of the economic, social and financial crises that our countries are experiencing; Women and girls are exposed to the fiercest family violence, which has become more widespread due to residential quarantine!

Therefore, we launch an urgent appeal for a rapid reaction required by the democratic forces in our Arab countries, to put pressure on governments and parliamentarians to:

1) Provide protection for women and girls from the humiliating and deadly domestic violence that has intensified and left dozens of victims recently.

2) Accelerate the adoption of laws that discourage violence against women, which include effective protection clauses and that establish severe sanctions, to stop violence and discourage the criminalisation of violence.

3) Generalize a culture based on equal rights and duties, based on the human rights system, an alternative culture to the other culture derived from past customs and traditions, which gives men authority to control women’s lives from the birth to death and legitimizes violence against women.

4) Make the fight against gender violence a part of the strategy of the Arab states to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

5) We also address an urgent appeal to the leadership of the International Democratic Federation of Women to launch a solidarity campaign with women in the Arab region, who are vulnerable to deadly violence, and to disseminate this appeal to United Nations organizations and the International Criminal Court; taking into account the Federation’s position in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, also in its capacity as observers in the UN General Assembly, to pressure Arab governments to pass dissuasive laws and take legal measures, of social protection and security in order to stop domestic violence and stop the suffering of women in the Arab region immediately.