Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace launches a Charter of Libyan Women’s Constitutional Rights
After a series of workshops and consultations on the constitution, held beginning in 2013, the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP) launches a Charter of Libyan Women’s Constitutional Rights.
In November 2014, the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace organized a roundtable of Libyan experts to discuss women’s rights in the constitution, as framed by Sharia versus the international conventions. The workshop convened a number of female civil society leaders, youth activists, judges, legal experts, academics, religious leaders from the League of Libyan Ulama and Al-Azhar, and the Head of the Civil Rights Committee in the Constitutional Drafting Assembly (CDA).
The Charter of Libyan Women’s Constitutional Rights covers women’s civil rights, rights to peace and security, and their social, cultural, economic, and political rights. It addresses the rights of all women, without discrimination base don culture, race, or social status. The Charter addresses the rights of women with special emphasis on peace and security - the rights of survivors of rape, prisoners and detainees, displaced persons, and refugees.
Shahrazad Kablan, an education and media consultant and a member of the drafting team of the charter, explained the importance of the charter. “The constitution is the framework by which we ensure and protect justice, the common good, the general welfare and posterity for all men and women.”
Hanan Dakhil Ghosheh, a freelance writer and activist who also participated in drafting the charter said, “To me, the constitution represents a watershed opportunity to push the “reset” button surrounding the debate on Libyan women’s rights and our struggle for equality and social justice. It will either catapult us forward—so we may join the rest of the modern world—or set us back at least another generation or two”.
For more information on the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace, please visit the LWPP's website.