Date: Jul 8, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
HRW urges acceptance of women’s rights draft law
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch has urged the government to adopt a draft law condemning violence against women, after the country’s two highest Muslim bodies rejected the bill.
“All Lebanese women, like women everywhere in the world, have a right to be protected from abuse and violence, regardless of their religious affiliation,” said Nadya Khalife, Middle East women’s rights researcher at HRW.
The legislation proposes specific sentences for perpetrators of domestic violence, assigns a public prosecutor in each governorate to investigate reports of domestic violence, and allows women and children to seek a restraining order within 48 hours.