In cooperation with Equality Now – Kenya, the Association of the Egyptian Female Lawyers held 12 awareness sessions which were attended by more than 250 participants from CSOs leaders and representatives. CSOs leaders represented 10 different governorates all over Egypt.

During the sessions, the participants discussed number of international conventions and protocols regarding women’s rights, among which are: • CEDAW Convention (1979). • Women’s Political Rights Conventions (1952). • United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. • The International Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Racial Discrimination (1966). • Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). • The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (MAPUTO).

Also in the context of the National Strategy of Human Rights which was launched during last September, the participants discussed the following axes: • The third axis regarding women’s rights and the Egyptian State commitments to achieve it, as there was a discussion about which was mentioned in the Egyptian constitution about values of justice and gender equality, integrating gender equality concept in the National Strategy of Sustainable Development (Egypt Vision 2030), political, social and economic empowerment for women and protecting women against all forms of violence and harmful practices. • The fourth axis regarding culturing and building capacities in the field of human rights, as the state’s contribution to raise the citizen’s awareness and educate them in fields of human rights was discussed and the necessity of launching many media campaigns about values and principles of human rights and that it is necessary for governmental institutions and CSOs to assure values of citizenship, tolerance, dialogue and combating inciting violence and discrimination. From her side the lawyer Rabha Fathy, AEFL chairperson, highlighted the importance of disseminating culture of women’s rights in international charters in general and in MAPUTO protocol in particular, in addition to the necessity of supporting members and leaders of NGOs in the field of advancing women’s rights and protecting them, raise awareness of NGOs in regard to women’s and chaild rights and create supportive society to women’s and child rights.