In its first meeting… establishing steps for the national platform for the protection of women and girls

The National Commission for Lebanese Women held the first meeting of the National Committee for the National Platform on Violence against Women and Girls in Lebanon, which was established by the Commission after holding a series of consultative technical meetings with its partners in the public and private sectors.

The committee includes male and female representatives from ministries, public administrations, and security and military institutions.

The meeting comes within the framework of the National Strategy for Women in Lebanon (2022-2030) and in implementation of the National Authority’s action plan, and within the project to strengthen the capabilities of national mechanisms for women’s affairs with the aim of promoting gender equality and combating violence against women and girls, in which the National Authority cooperates with the United Nations Population Fund.

It should be noted that this national platform and its content will be developed in close cooperation between the National Authority, ministries, official departments, and relevant civil society organizations.

The meeting was attended by lawyer Nathalie Zaarour, Secretary of the National Authority, Lamia Osseiran, Treasurer of the National Authority, Nicia El-Dennawi, Program Specialist at the United Nations Population Fund office in Lebanon, members of the Authority, female and male officers of the gender focus, and male and female representatives from ministries, public administrations, and security and military institutions.

Zaarour opened the meeting with a prominent speech in which he said: “The committee’s work plan will continue until the end of the year, with the aim of making information available on the platform, after preparing the unified form, monitoring and collecting studies and research, distributing the form to partners and concerned parties from the public and private sectors, in addition to holding periodic technical meetings, analyzing and issuing data, and evaluating and publishing studies.”

Then, Ms. Myriam Sfeir, Chair of the Committee to Combat Violence against Women and Girls in the National Authority, presented the national platform and its website.

During the meeting, the tasks of the committee were presented, in addition to the role of the Central Statistics Department, the research methodology, and the work plan.

The meeting concluded with a discussion between the participants and laying the foundations for a future work map.