Egypt rejects all forms of violence against women: Presidency

Saturday 16-03-2013 11:45 AM
Egypt rejects all forms of violence against women: Presidency

Thousands of Egyptians marched to the presidential palace on Thursday, December 6, 2012, against a decree issued by President Mohamed Mursi and a draft constitution written by an Islamist-dominated assembly. Ahmed Hamed/Aswat Masriya

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The office of the Assistant to the President of Egypt on foreign relations has issued a statement in English on Friday regarding Egypt's official position on the yet-to-be-ratified United Nations (UN) declaration on women’s rights, as a part of the 57th session of the United Nations' Commission on the Status of Women's. 

"The Egyptian delegation continues to participate in the negotiations, regarding the agreed conclusions of this session. United Nations member states also contributed to the session with additional suggestions and amendments to the draft report, each in the way they saw was appropriate to their culture." 

The statement added that the "Egyptian Administration is actively participating in the efforts to reach consensual conclusions in the context of its commitment to upholding the Egyptian Constitution and respecting the choices of Egyptian people after the revolution."

"The Presidency would like to affirm that the Egyptian stance on this issue is the clear rejection of all forms of violence against women for any reason under any name. Furthermore, Egypt is adopting an integrated strategy to eliminate this negative phenomenon, whose roots go back to the pre-revolution period." 

In the official statement, the Egyptian Presidency explained that the government will have short, medium and long-term strategies to fight all forms of violence against women, including sexual harassment and workshops to empower women. 

"In the long-range, the Presidency will be developing a national plan for women empowerment and participation, adopting a comprehensive approach that tackles the root causes of the marginalisation of women, with due attention to empowering the Egyptian family, the nucleus of society," the statement elaborated. 

On Wednesday, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had issued a statement slamming the yet-to-be-ratified UN declaration on women's rights, claiming that it was contradicting Islamic Sharia and calling the Islamic countries and their UN representatives to reject the document. 

The Brotherhood statement caused controversy and anger among feminists and human rights activists and other rights organisations in Egypt. 

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