Introduction

Lebanon is one of the three countries in which WRCATI was piloted. The project was particularly complex in the case of Lebanon as it had to research and document family laws of all nineteen sects of Lebanon. In the process, the advisory board created during the course of the project with representatives from all faiths provided a rare forum for dialogue among the various sects. The outcomes of the project were also presented to law students in many of Lebanon’s Schools of Law, resulting in heightened awareness and dialogue amongst this very important group of future lawyers and judges.

 

Partners

WRCATI in Lebanon was implemented in collaboration with the UNDP Lebanon Country Office, the Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women (LCRVAW). KAFA, and Microsoft Corporation.

 

Activities&Outcomes
 

  • CD ROM- Methodology

Three lawyers were recruited to research and compile the data needed to produce the CD ROM.

    • CD content (based on different religions and laws in Lebanon)
    • Currently working on getting a domain name and a host for the website.
    • Researched existing laws and legal documents
    • Defining the legal framework of tackled issues
    • Determining references and sources.
    • Defining the scope of work and preparing the implementation schedule
    • 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, among others:
    • Civil laws
    • Religious laws
    • Relevant legal studies,
    • Court judgments,
    • Previous studies and statistics,
    • In addition to consultations with:
      • Women’s groups
      • Legal and religious advisors

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  • CD ROM- Distribution Strategy

Following the MOU between National Center and recipient organization, ICTDAR was able to distribute the CD-ROMs as follows:

    • 150 CDs before including needed amendments (first version) were created and distributed during ICTDAR’s launching of the project in ESCWA
    • 200 new CDs were created including needed amendments and corrections (final version), 70 were distributed to NGOs targeted by the project, Ministry Development Community Centers , Universities and Journalists.
    • 350 user guides for the CD were published and distributed.
    • The CDs distribution process accompanies the distribution of the PCs and a delivery certificate was signed by each Center. All beneficiaries were contacted and informed on behalf of the ICTDAR about the offer of a PC.
    • Copies to the Ministry Centers were distributed through the Women Affairs Unit in MOSA, in addition to the creation of a help desk service piloted to offer on-call assistance to trainees and beneficiaries, IT uses, CD's use, cases follow up.

  • Frequently Asked Questions

The project teams, in addition to 4 lawyers, 5 judges and two experienced social workers, have been providing listening and counseling services to women victims of violence, and were responsible for producing the “Frequently Asked Questions”.

 

  • Train the Trainer

The project‘s team training achieved the following goals:

    • Providing communities with an awareness tool offering legal information to all.
    • Building the capacities of social workers and professional in medico-social centers in the field of offering a primary legal consultation.
    • NGOs/Partners: 43 Centers were selected to be targeted by the project based on the following criteria:
    • Geographical location
    • Availability of a social worker
    • IT expertise
    • Availability of PC
    • Reducing legal illiteracy among women and families in general.
    • 20 IT manuals were produced and 350 user guides for the CD were printed
    • Capacity building and Training: 4 training sessions were conducted:
      • 1 basic IT skills for 16 Social workers
      • 3 on the CD for 16 social workers each

Courses covered:

      • Overview of basic listening skills
      • Overview of basic consultation skills
      • Overview of the global Lebanese laws
      • In depth description of the various elements in the CD
      • Description of the CD user guide, along with a demo
      • Practical exercises on each of the above mentioned topics
    • The Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Women (LCRVAW) organized meetings with participants from various regions. They were sensitized on legal issues and their link with Gender Based Violence in familial relationships, in addition to counseling services provided to trainees as a form of coaching and evaluation of the outputs of the trainings.

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  • Women’s Centers

LCRVAW conducted a study having as result the following:

    • 30 centers were selected to be equipped with PCs.
    • 45 centers to offer training to social workers
    • 53 NGOs were involved in all the process .

LCORVAW selection was based on the following criteria:

    • To cover all major geographical areas in Lebanon;
    • To include both- centers of NGOs and centers of Ministry of Social Affairs;
    • To ensure that the centers offering direct services to women in their areas;
    • To ensure that the centre recruits a social worker or social assistant.
    • 27 NGO centers and 17 centers of the Ministry of Social Affairs were prepared.
    • A special questionnaire was developed
    • Needs assessment was conducted for the centers

 

  • Court Automation

The goal of court automation project is to eliminate the obstacles facing women from getting their alimony rights, through archiving and analyzing courts procedures and decisions.

To achieve this strategic goal, this project has multiple short term specific goals which might be numerated by the following:

    • To document/archive alimony decisions, processes of monthly payments, aging list of due alimony…etc
    • To computerize data related to alimonies' decisions hence obtain statistical genuine information essential to researches and strategic studies in order to ameliorate the situation.
    • To prevent legal and judiciary discrimination of women in the religious/spiritual courts by increasing awareness among women in Lebanon in regards to their rights and obligations within the Lebanese Personal Status Codes.
    • To highlight the difficulties facing women during the trials and courts' procedures.
    • To mobilize civil society, judges and the public opinion in order to support women and defend their rights.
      • The major concern, in Lebanon, was the important number of religions and sects in the country, and the need to compile the legislation for all of them, an additional constraint in the country was the necessity to choose a system for claims, which may not be applied to all the courts.
      • 2 Courts will be used as pilot ones: The Sunnite Charia’a Court and the Maronite religious courts
      • Delays in Court Automation in are due to the complex political situation during February – May 2005.
  • Media & Advocacy

ICTDAR, in collaboration with LCORVAW as well as with other NGOs particularly Kafa, launched a media campaign during which they utilized the print media, lectures, TVs, flyers, posters, interviews, a documentary and speakers at universities to educate and raise awareness of the issues of the project and the issues of women’s right sand violence against women.

The aim of this campaign is to make benefit of the CD and the website entitled “Promoting The Rights of Women and Children through Information”, to conduct an awareness raising campaign among youth on the family laws in Lebanon that are documented in the CD, and the relation between the existing laws and violence against women. This campaign was launched during the “16 days of activism against violence against women”, which is an annual international event, starting on the international day to resist violence against women (25th of November), and ending on the international day of human rights (10th of December).

    • First direct group: university students & university staff were chosen for the following reasons :
      • The existing electronic information on laws regarding the familial relationships will help us diffuse awareness among a large public, especially among youth whose “information and communication technology” skills will help them to benefit from the available CD and website.
      • Part of the target group 9students) is a vulnerable group, because of its ignorance of the issue of personal status laws and all other laws related to incidence of violence. Using the CD as an awareness tool is a way to prevent more cases of violence, especially domestic violence.
      • This target group can be itself a diffuser of information for other youth and adults in its environment especially that the problem of marital and domestic violence is one of the most prevalent forms of violence in the Lebanese society.
      • Students of the universities and the high educational institutes in Beirut and regions – that being through direct interaction contact with them. The expected number of participants is around 700 students
      • People in charge of targeted universities and institutes. (Social workers, pedagogues…)
    • Second target group
      • Journalists
      • The Lebanese Society in general, through the media. The expected number of articles and interviews is around 16.
      • Women and children that have a problem of domestic violence, through augmenting social advocacy to relieve them from the violence.
      • The parents of the targeted students, in addition to their local communities, through informing them indirectly by these youth about laws and inconveniences of domestic violence
    • Other activities
      • Conduct 10 specialized group meetings and conference sessions on the content of the CD on “Promoting the Rights of Women and Children through Information”.
      • 4 more lectures are planned. The subject dwelt will be on:
        • Laws about this issue through using the CD on “Promoting the Rights of Women and Children through Information”.
        • How to use the CD and the website and explanation on its various parts.
        • The concept of domestic violence and its forms.
        • Medical and psychological effect of violence.
        • Lectures will be conducted by a team of specialists: physicians, social workers, lawyers & I.T. specialists.
      • Produce a series of media encounters and articles about the subject; in the period between 25th of November and 10th of December 2005.
      • URL of the website: (enclosing CD piloted in each of Lebanon, Tunis and Egypt)
      • The link of this website will be added on KAFA website www.kafa.org.lb; and on the websites of each of ICTDAR and our partners in Tunis and Egypt.
      • A contract has been signed to produce a documentary on the CD ROM

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Impact

The following is a study case showing how the CD Rom was used to overcome a critical situation in Lebanon:

It is a case of a woman called Mariam, separated from her husband 3 months ago. She has two kids: a boy and a girl living with their father who is prohibiting her from seeing them. She has sought the help from many welfare workers but without any result to mention. Her husband threatens her of taking the children away from her once and for all and accompanies them out of the country. She visited the social worker-trained on the CD working in a Women NGO located in Beirut Southern suburb to ask her help and assistance.

The social worker, and after accomplishing the social investigation and compiling data on her religion, history of the family…etc used the CD to check out legal potential solutions to assist her in her specific situation and she highlight her the possibility of raising a seeing process against her husband and printed out to her the form of the process in addition to a form from a stoppage travel demand.

This lady gets a decision from the court to see her kids and prevent the possibility of kidnapping her children.

Therefore by offering this “easy access to legal information to all”, this woman was aware of her rights and choices possible to be taken in her crisis situation.

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