The Task Force for a held its launching conference, on 4 December 2017 during the 6 Days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV). This comes in the context of the continuing spread of violence against women, despite the adoption of several policies and procedures to combat GBV in Egypt. The founding organizations gathered to launch the Task Force and introduce their proposed VAW bill, which consists of seven chapters beginning with definitions of various forms of violence based on the definition adopted by the Egyptian constitution and relevant international ratified treaties by the Egyptian State. . Additionally, the law bill also stipulates litigation procedures, as well as the required interventions for securing protection and preventing the occurrence of violence. Members of the Task Force expressed their intention to create a wide community debate around the articles of the law and to propose it to the Egyptian Parliament in the upcoming years.
The Task Force consisted of 9 organizations working in the field of women’s rights: the New Woman Foundation, Nazra for Feminist Studies, the Foundation for Egyptian Women’s Issues, the Cairo Center for Development and Law, the Women and Memory Forum, the Nadeem Center for Psychological Treatment and Rehabilitation for Victims of Violence, the Center for Appropriate Communications for Development, The Egyptian Women Lawyers initiative and Tadwein for Gender Studies, aims primarily to demand the adoption of a unified law to stop violence against women.
As the current Egyptian procedures and legislation seem insufficient to protect women from violence. Instead of scattered articles in the Penal Code that define violence only, we believe that the adoption of a unified law criminalizing all forms of violence against women, linking violence in the public and private spheres, and providing for measures to protect survivors, is the first step on the right path.
Today, the nine organizations released their founding statement to launch the proposed bill and emphasized that as long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim that we are making real progress towards equality, development and peace. And states have a duty to protect women from violence, hold those responsible to account, and provide justice and redress to victims. Ending violence against women remains one of the most serious challenges of our time.” Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations 2006