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Organisation website:
Equal Rights Advocates is a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls.

Equal Opportunity
ERA works to eradicate illegal discriminatory practices that deny women advancement opportunities, equal compensation, and access to certain occupations.

Respectful and Safe Treatment
ERA demands that employers provide women with a work environment that is free of sexual harassment and in compliance with health and safety laws.

Work and Family Balance
ERA enforces family and medical leave and pregnancy protection laws, and is active in the effort to establish paid family and medical leave.

Organisation Website : portal available in 3 languages French, English and Arabic. In brief: "Al Tamkeen is a Lebanese Non Profit Non Governmental Organization (NGO) officially registered in 2002 under notification no. 159/AD. Al Tamkeen aims at improving the social, cultural, and economical and health livelihood of rural Lebanese citizens through providing various types of assistance programs and development projects."

Project webpage:
In 1996, Lebanon ratified, with reservations, an international covenant regarding women's rights known as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This Convention sets out, in a comprehensive, legally binding form, internationally accepted principles on the rights of women. It further commits States Parties to take all appropriate measures, to ensure the full development and advancement of women and to guarantee them the enjoyment of the fundamental rights and freedoms to which they are entitled, on a basis of equality with men. Moreover, the Convention requires that Governments work to eliminate discrimination against women in public life as well as in private life. Indeed, according to the Convention, women must be as free as men to make choices not only in political and legal sphere, but also in such areas as marriage, the home and family life in general.

To implement women's rights, as stated in the Convention, the establishment of official and non-governmental monitoring mechanisms (national and international) helps ensure that goals are being reached and that legal rights and duties of women are recognized, understood and enforced.

The Lebanese government submitted, in 1999, its initial report regarding the progress made on the implementation of the Convention in its country, to the international monitoring treaty body known as the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW Committee). Non-governmental organizations are also encouraged to submit a parallel report in conformity with the guidelines set by the CEDAW Committee.

In this respect, the Lebanese NGO Forum, an umbrella organization of various NGOs distributed geographically throughout the Lebanese territory has set a permanent monitoring mechanism entitled Women's Rights Monitor.

This project aims at helping NGOs monitor women's rights and implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Lebanon by establishing a platform for co-ordination that will, at the national and regional levels:

- Provide information about the Convention and the CEDAW Committee

- Provide guidelines in view of helping NGOs to write their report to the CEDAW Committee

- Establish a set of baseline data regarding women's rights in Lebanon in accordance with the guidelines of the CEDAW

- Elaborate a permanent report regarding women's situation in Lebanon, based on the compiled data

- Establish a bibliography on the subject of women's rights and facilitate the exchange of information and documentation

- Provide a mailing list of participating NGOs

Organisation website :
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a network of feminist scholars, researchers and activists from the economic South working for economic and gender justice and sustainable and democratic development. DAWN provides a forum for feminist research, analyses and advocacy on global issues (economic, social and political) affecting the livelihoods, living standards, rights and development prospects of women, especially poor and marginalized women, in regions of the South. Through research, analyses, advocacy and, more recently, training, DAWN seeks to support women's mobilization within civil society to challenge inequitable social, economic and political relations at global, regional and national levels, and to advance feminist alternatives.

Organisation website:
Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah, West Bank. Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the organisation has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Al-Haq documents violations of the individual and collective rights of Palestinians in the OPT, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator, and seeks to end such breaches by way of advocacy before national and international mechanisms and by holding the violators accountable. The organisation conducts research; prepares reports, studies and interventions on breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law in the OPT; and undertakes advocacy before local, regional and international bodies. Al-Haq also cooperates with Palestinian civil society organisations and governmental institutions in order to ensure that international human rights standards are reflected in Palestinian law and policies. The organisation has a specialised international law library for the use of its staff and the local community.

Organisation website:
The Institute for Women's Policy Research conducts rigorous research and disseminates its findings to address the needs of women, promote public dialog, and strengthen families, communities, and societies.

It is the leading think tank in the U.S. focusing primarily on domestic women's issues. Founded in 1987, IWPR's reports and other informational resources have informed policies and programs across the U.S., in each of its key program areas:

Employment, Education, & Economic Change - Employment and Job Quality, Economic Status of Women in the States , Pay Equity and Discrimination, Access to Higher Education, Unemployment and the Economy

Democracy & Society - The Status of Women and Girls, Immigration and Religion, Women in Unions, Women's Political Participation

Poverty, Welfare, & Income Security - Retirement and Social Security, Poverty, Katrina and the Gulf Coast, Welfare Reform

Work & Family - Early Care and Education, Family Leave and Paid Sick Days, Workplace Flexibility

Health & Safety - Women's access to health insurance, costs and benefits of preventative health services for women, costs of domestic violence

Organisation website:
Association profile in brief: "Beyond association aims at fostering the cultural maturity of women, youth and children. Through advocacy, proper networking with women's activists at the international, regional and national scale, execution of developmental projects, training and education, Beyond strives to make a positive differences in the lives of the three mains pillars of society, namely, women, youth and children."

Organisation website:
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is a leading global charity for international development research, teaching and communications.
IDS was founded in 1966 and enjoys an international reputation based on the quality of its work and its commitment to applying academic skills to real world challenges. Its purpose is to understand and explain the world, and to try to change it – to influence as well as to inform.

Organisation website:
The Arab International Women's Forum stands unique as the first and only non-profit organisation set up in London to link Arab business and professional women in the 22 Arab countries with each other and with their counterparts in the international community
Launched in 2001, AIWF, as an independent non profit organisation, serves as the voice of Arab women; showcasing their development, promoting cross cultural diversity and creating greater public awareness of women's success and prospects in the Arab world.

Organisation website:
Association profile available in 2 languages. ( English, and Arabic). In brief : "Makhzoumi Foundation is a private Lebanese non-profit organization, established in 1997 by Mr Fouad Makhzoumi, and chaired by Mrs. May Makhzoumi. The foundation contributes through its programs to the civil society development by providing its services to Lebanese Citizens throughout Lebanon."