ICHR welcomes resolutions on women’s rights

The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) has welcomed measures taken by the government to strengthen the rights of women in Palestine.

The changes, announced ahead of International Women's Day, include the right of Palestinian women to pass on their citizenship to their children, to open bank accounts in their names and to transfer them between schools.

The Cabinet also recommended to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a series of legal amendments that include cancelling or amending laws that allow rapists to avoid punishment by marrying their victims.

The recommendations include abolition of Article 308 of Jordan's Penal Code, still in effect in Palestine, which pardons rapists who marry their victim. The Jordanian Parliament abolished Article 308 in August 2017.

The Palestinian Government also recommended changes to the penal code, which permitted lesser punishments for acts of violence carried out in so-called 'honour crimes'.

The ICHR said these measures would help to eliminate some forms of discrimination that Palestinian women experience.

However, the ICHR emphasised that further action was needed "to achieve full equality between men and women, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which the State of Palestine acceded in 2004 without any reservations".

The steps taken by the Cabinet addressed demands previously made by the ICHR and other human right organisations, the ICHR said in a statement.

"In this context, the ICHR thanks the Ministry of Women's Affairs, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Justice for supporting these demands. It also applauds all the human rights and women organisations that have struggled for a long time for these legitimate demands."

Date: 11 March 2018

Source: Independent Commission for Human Rights