Introduction

 

Egypt is one of the first three countries where WRCATI was implemented. The project was launched on May 30 th 2005, in the presence of the First Lady of Egypt. As a result, women have much more access to knowledge about their family rights, giving them the ability to achieve those rights faster and more comprehensively, resulting in a better quality of life.

 

Partners

The project was implemented in Egypt in collaboration with the National Council for Women.

 

Activity&Outcomes
 

  • CD ROM- Methodology

Legal Consultants (academics and practitioners) in the fields of divorce, alimony, custody and non-Muslim personal status laws were recruited after developing a proposal outlining research methodology:

    • Defining the legal framework of tackled issues
    • Determining references and sources.
    • Defining the scope of work
    • Determining the target population
    • Necessity of inclusion in digital content in addition to thematic texts, procedural clarifications as well as explanations and links to related questions.

  • CD ROM- Research Sources

Research sources were identified, including:

    • Family courts laws
    • Law for family insurance system
    • Islamic Fiqh to which Egyptian laws make reference,
    • Legislative and Judiciary Sources,
    • Shura council,
    • Relevant legal studies,
    • People assembly,
    • Court judgments,
    • Compilation of 2000 rulings of the final court and hundreds of other rulings,
    • Previous studies and statistics,
    • In addition to consultations with:

    - National Council for Women (NCW)
    - National centre for social and criminal research
    - Visits to Zananeery court, one of the most famous Egyptian courts in the field of Personal Status Laws, where assistants researchers met tens of divorced women and interviewed them about their problems with divorce, Khul’, alimony, and custody.
    - NGOs concerned with legal rights of women, nine of which were communicated, most imminent of which are the Egyptian centre for the rights of women, the centre for alternative development studies, Ibn Roshd Development centre, and the centre for legal studies and information.
    - Interviews with President of the Resumption Court of Cairo, his Deputy, Consultant of Personality Status Claims in Alexandria

     

  • CD ROM- Distribution Strategy

Distribution strategy was developed and implemented to ensure widest possible dissemination

    • Centers were selected for CD distribution
    • 1000 copies of the final version of the CD were printed after the approval of the Secretary General of the NCW.
    • Direct distribution to government organizations and NGOs through a drafted MOU between National Center and recipient organization with the support of ICTDAR
    • A letter to the Minister of Media was sent to produce tapes on the content of the CD and spread it all over the Egyptian Governorates. The Minister gives much care for the CD by sending it to Cairo Sound for Sounds and Visible Company in order to work on
    • Many Television Interviews are conducted and articles on the projects are published in the newspapers

 

  • Frequently Asked Questions

In collaboration with ICTDAR, the National Council for Women (NCW) recruited 4 legal consultants to develop Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) each in his corresponding area of expertise. Several brain storming sessions were held with the legal consultants clarifying Project's goals and objectives, identifying targeted segments, namely women in general, with emphasis on illiterate women, or those of limited education, and rural women. In light of the aforementioned, the necessity of simple and practical formulation of FAQs and their answers was emphasized.

    • Compiled approximately 2000 rulings of the final court and hundreds of other rulings to guide the development of FAQs and their answers; the importance of the final court judgments being its status as the final stage of claim, thus affecting all lower courts.
    • The legal content of the FAQs and answers were reviewed by a Ministry of Justice committee, Consultant to the Minister of justice, President of the Court of Cairo, Consultant of Personality Status claims in the Court of Alexandria, Member of the Islamic Research Assembly

     

  • Train the Trainer

To ensure the optimal utilization of the Project's CD-ROMs and website, government and NGOs officers were provided with training of trainers (ToT) on the content of the CD ROM and basic installation procedures and use of the CD ROM

Training methodology varied from lectures on the CD-ROMS and Website legal content given provided by the Project's legal consultants, and practical training provided by technical staff at NCW premises.

    • Legal partners: More than 1 000 Centers were identified and supported
    • A training manual was developed and utilized to train the concerned civil servants in the country.
    • Capacity building and Training: The NCW, with ICTDAR’s support, prepared a work plan on the CD ROM contents training for 100 trainees covering all Egyptian governorates.
    • Information kits were sent to all Governors, as well as to the Ministries of Justice, Social Affairs, Youth, Women Committee in the Regional Union for the NGOs, and Nile Centers for Media.

 

  • Women Centers

The women support centers are used to disseminate the CD-ROM produced to the Project’s target groups, namely Egyptian women lacking awareness of their legal rights. In order to define and select the women support centers, numbers and geographical distribution nation wide, ICTDAR conducted a study based on a desktop research and one-to-one interviews, highlighting centers suitable for the CD-ROM dissemination.

    • The project team identified various governmental and non- governmental organizations and their branches, centers and clubs in the governorates that could be used for providing the legal awareness service. These include:
      • National Council of Women (NCW) 27 branches in the governorates;
      • Women clubs affiliated with the Ministry of Youth;
      • Family disputes settlement offices affiliated with the Ministry of Justice;
      • Women clubs affiliated with the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs;
      • NGOs working in the field of women legal rights.
    • Activities achieved referring to Center’s selection and training
      • Centers selection criteria based on centers serving most number of women
      • 1300 centers chosen (government) and 100 centers (NGOs)
      • Suburban centers were seen as most important
    • Centers affiliated with the following ministries were suggested:
      • Ministry of Youth: Interviews with Vice Minister and women’s clubs Officer, women clubs were identified as the main target in the Ministry of Youth.
      • Ministry of Justice: The Ministry expressed interest in providing help to the project through the family conflict resolution bureau
      • Ministry of Social Affairs:
        • 180 Offices of Family Guidance and Counseling from all governorates
        • 660 Women clubs around the country, providing services to 68,000 women around villages of rural governorates around Egypt
        • Social and cultural clubs providing services to 91,000 women
        • Centers for protection of abused women in Cairo, Giza, and Daqahleya
      • Ministry of Communication: ICT Clubs
      • Ministry of Social Insurance: NCW branches and Female Rural Pioneers
    • Non Governmental Organizations:
      The NCWprepared a study on NGOs working on women’s issues. The study identified the criteria of selection for NGOs as follows:
      • Working in developing women’s legal awareness.
      • Geographic diversity of the NGOs.
      • Expectations of sustainability of the service after the end of the project lifecycle
      • Cooperation with NGOs active in the CEDAW and Beijing Work Protocol, some of which were previously trained in the two conventions in a UNIFEM project.

NCW’s study found that NGOs working in women’s issues range in their specific interests from family issues to consumer protection, housewives, protection of the working woman, social solidarity, eradication of all forms of discrimination against women, and other areas. It concluded that the most likely NGOs to work with the project were the following:

    • Horas NGO, Al Fayoum
    • Family Care Organization, Bani Sweif: Organize caravans for family planning
    • Boulac Services NGO: Organize lectures for women
    • El Tahrir NGO for Social work : 5 El Tahrir St, Misr el-Gedida
    • Future Youth Center
    • Leaders Training Center , El Sharqiya
    • Information Center related to the ministry of social affairs
    • Egyptian Red Crescent Society, kafr el sheikh
    • Woman Affairs Office in governorates
    • Small & Medium projects development NGO
    • Women development NGO
    • Family planning NGO, El Wadi el Jadid

 

  • Court Automation

Established by law 10/2004, family courts started to function in 1 st October 2000 with 220 branches throughout Egypt. The main advantages of family courts are considered to be the specialization of judges in personal status, simplification of procedures and providing quick rulings.

Three judges constitute the family court, assisted by two experts, one sociologist and a psychologist. A special department dedicated to implementing rulings is created in each family court. Also, an appeal is possible

To provide holistic legal services to women, NCW proposed automating family courts in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice. In parallel, Nasser Social Bank (NSB), administrating provision of alimony for divorced women, will be automated forming a full automated service circuit.

To start the plan of Family Courts automation, the National Project Coordinator prepared a study on four branches of Family Courts in Giza and Cairo with participation of the Ministry of Justice, NSB, ERICD and UNDP/ ICTDAR representatives.

However, due to fund limitation, a decision was made that the automated will be tracking system will be piloted at Mansoura family court and the corresponding branch of NSB. After several negotiation sessions, the Ministry of Justice and NSB prepared proposals for the requirements of the automation process within the allocated fund. It was agreed that the Ministry of Justice will fund the infrastructure paving the way for the automated service provision amounting to exceeding two Million Egyptian pounds. On the other hand, the Project will fund activities pertaining to training and soft ware development due to shortage of financial resources available.

Activities

    • The Advisory Board approved the plan on the Family Court and Social Nasser Bank automation, adding some amendments.
    • The Ministry of Justice and the Social Nasser Bank, determined with ICTDAR to fund part of the automation process cost.
    • ICTDAR chaired many meetings with the officers of the Ministry of Justice and the Social Nasser Bank to find a final plan on the automation of the Family Court and the Social Nasser Bank.

Top

 

  • Media & Advocacy

In view of advertising the CD ROM and website services provided by the project and allowing for the widest possible outreach within its target population throughout Egypt , ICTDAR & NCW carried out the following activities:

Activities

    • ICTDAR presented the CD ROM at the “2nd National Conference for Women Clubs” under the auspices of Egypt's First Lady (December 2004), where internet web site was also presented.
    • NCW presented the CD ROM at the “International day of Violence against women”
    • NCW sponsored three seminars per month in women's clubs country-wide after the production of the CDs and internet website to raise awareness about the services they provide.
    • NCW, with support from ICTDAR, organized a seminar with the Ministry of Justice about women's legal rights where participants were introduced to the project's internet website and the CD.
    • Seminars with the Ministry of Social Affairs' Centers were organized for the same purpose.

Top