For the third consecutive year, UNFPA Lebanon contributed to the campaign and advocacy efforts led by KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation and the National Coalition for Legislating the Protection of Women from Family Violence, in partnership with the Danish Center on Gender, Equality and Ethnicity KVINFO, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Norwegian People's Aid, the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, the Swedish organization Kvinna till Kvinna, UN Women, and UNDP.
This year’s campaign was critical as the draft law for the protection of women from family violence supported by the National Coalition for Legislating the Protection of Women from Family Violence was under discussion by a sub-committee within the Parliament. However, was (and still is) fear that the draft law will be changed to weaken some of its provisions in response to the demands of an opposition campaign introduced by some religious groups.
The focus of the 16 days campaign was to lobby for the passage of the law to protect women from family violence in its complete and comprehensive form, without major changes weakening its protection measures. To this effect, an advocacy campaign with the slogan “Towards the Protection of Women from Family Violence” was implemented through a wide range of activities: A national media campaign including TV/Radio/Cinema spots; unipoles; advertisements on public transportation buses; distribution of flyers within newspapers; social media campaign; awareness raising sessions on the draft law; five giant puppet street performance shows; a symbolic court trial on marital rape crimes in presence of prominent figures; exhibition of artwork created by survivors of GBV. Activities covered all the areas of the country.