Discrimination against women in recruitment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In its issue of last Monday, An Nahar newspaper highlighted a flagrant discrimination against women in civil service notably the memorandum which was posted a few weeks ago on the civil service website calling for applicants for Category 3 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and which included 7 eligibility criteria.  One of these criteria requires that women applicants be “single” and should be able to prove her status.  The newspaper described this criteria as being unfair and discriminatory.  According to a source in the said Ministry, there were some attempts during the last ten years to review these criteria but to no avail in view of various political obstacles.  The source in the Ministry denied the accusation of discrimination and cited a number of women in diplomatic positions, (namely 36 employees), who are married.

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fawzi Sallukh, said that these criteria are drawn from a law approved on 18/6/1976 (by-laws of the Ministry), adding that he received no complaints on that matter during his mandate despite the fact that calls for recruitment were issued several times.  He reiterated that achieving gender equality and equal opportunities is a legitimate cause.  He added however that, unfortunately, the general situation in Lebanon is “unstable” and that addressing such issues is “secondary” matter.

In commenting the news, Maya Ammar, Kafa’s media spokesperson, noted that this matter is unacceptable especially since it does not equally apply to men and that it is a gross discrimination against women and a measure that blocks women’s participation in public life.  Ammar added that such discrimination causes economic and moral prejudice to women and is in gross violation of the international Conventions that Lebanon has ratified and should adhere to namely CEDAW which was ratified in 1996.  The president of the Lebanese Working Women League, Iqbal Dughan, added that such criteria are in violation of the Constitution, and as such, the Civil Service Council should have rejected this clause.

 

(Source: Annahar 26 January, 2015)