Over the last months, the Collective for Research & Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), member of our Network, has been quite busy advancing gender equality issues throughout Lebanon.

In April 2017, the CRTD-A launched “My Nationality Campaign” demanding a gender inclusive Nationality Law by amending existing discriminatory provisions of the Lebanese Nationality law, which prevents women from giving their nationality to their children or husbands. Achieving this goal is expected to contribute towards more gender equality in Lebanon and thereby arriving at a more effective implementation of CEDAW through removing reservation on article 9, and achieving Goal 5 of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.  

The campaign which has several interim goals such including the mitigation of the negative impact of the existing discriminatory law particularly on concerned women of vulnerable socioeconomic groups, consists of different activities and approaches.  For instance, the Collective organized a sit-in in front of the Lebanese Labor Ministry where individuals affected by the existing Nationality law held banners demanding the amendment of this law, which, in many cases, prevented the sons, daughters and husbands of Lebanese women who are married to non-Lebanese from having access to education or work, or created situations of inequality.

Furthermore, CRTD-A joined forces with Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) to provide refugee women in Turkey and Jordan with participatory leadership skills and human rights training to help them build better lives for themselves, their families, communities, and society; and to enable them to develop their advocacy skills so that they can better engage with local leaders and influence decision-making processes, particularly at the level of engagement with various peace processes.

In Lebanon, CRTD-A delivers various trainings on various Advocacy topics (i.e. Advocacy for Compassion, for Culture of Democracy, Beyond Equality, and Victories over Violence.) as well as on economic empowerment of marginalized women in Lebanon through the PISCCA program which funded by the French Embassy in Lebanon. The PISCCA aims at empowering marginalized women from different nationalities: Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian economically and socially through some income generating programs and general capacity building transforming them into skilled, knowledgeable, independent women capable in the long-term to participate in political and other public decision making activities. The target groups are poor, socially and economically excluded women living in marginalized areas in North and South Lebanon.