Abbas orders legal committee to review women`s rights and amend discriminatory laws
“Yesterday [March 6, 2014], [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the government to establish a legal committee to comprehensively review all sections of the various laws that discriminate against women, and to prepare the necessary amendments.
The President’s legal advisor, Hassan Al-Awri, said that the President’s orders state that a legal committee will be established by the government, in coordination with the relevant bodies and civil institutions. He added that the President had emphasized the urgency of proposing the necessary recommendations and amendments, which will allow for the protection of women’s rights and the provision of necessary legal protection, as well as for increasing the severity of the penalties for crimes against women. Al-Awri noted that the President’s orders also called for amending any section open to interpretation, or [any section] which implies that the criminal may use mitigation arguments to lessen the severity of the penalty or avoid punishment altogether in cases in which the victim is a woman.
Al-Awri emphasized that the President is providing all possible means for the protection of women, and stressed the need for official and unofficial bodies to take responsibility for them [by], among other things, creating a legal apparatus that will provide full protection for women, especially in view of the rise in violence against them, [which goes] by various names.”
From WAFA, official PA news agency
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The President’s legal advisor, Hassan Al-Awri, said that the President’s orders state that a legal committee will be established by the government, in coordination with the relevant bodies and civil institutions. He added that the President had emphasized the urgency of proposing the necessary recommendations and amendments, which will allow for the protection of women’s rights and the provision of necessary legal protection, as well as for increasing the severity of the penalties for crimes against women. Al-Awri noted that the President’s orders also called for amending any section open to interpretation, or [any section] which implies that the criminal may use mitigation arguments to lessen the severity of the penalty or avoid punishment altogether in cases in which the victim is a woman.
Al-Awri emphasized that the President is providing all possible means for the protection of women, and stressed the need for official and unofficial bodies to take responsibility for them [by], among other things, creating a legal apparatus that will provide full protection for women, especially in view of the rise in violence against them, [which goes] by various names.”
From WAFA, official PA news agency
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