USJ round table on combating violence against women

In collaboration with the USJ Political Science Institute, and with the participation of the minister of state for women’s affairs, Jean Ogassapian, and Canada’s Ambassador to Beirut, Emmanuelle Lamoureux, the Canadian Embassy organized yesterday a round table on ‘combating violence against women’. The roundtable presented an opportunity to bring together segments of the Lebanese society to address legal loopholes, challenges of implementation and cultural norms which contribute to the ongoing cycle of violence. While ISF Colonel, Ziad Qaidbey, explained how security forces deal with instances of domestic violence, the Legal Agenda and Kafa directors, Nizar Saghieh and Zoya Rouhana, elaborated on the issue from the legal and social aspects. For her part, Canadian professor, Lana Wales, outlined lessons learnt by her nationals on engaging boys and men in the prevention of violence. She mentioned that her government has given priority to end gender-based violence through a targeted policy launched in June 2017. Canada, Wales stressed, has adopted the first international women’s assistance police aimed at gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and fight against gender-based violence. (Al Mustaqbal, December 14, 2018)