Outcome LBN_D_6.1

Governments and civil society support progress on implementation of normative and policy frameworks, and work together to drive forward legislative change and reform

This outcome was achieved. In 2022, more women participated in political processes and the women’s movement further expanded and strengthened its advocacy efforts and collaboration. In 2022, a voters elected a record number of eight women to parliament, representing a 33 per cent increase from the previous six female MPs, while representing an overall percentage increase in female MPs from 4.6 per cent to 6.4 per cent. For the first time in Lebanon’s history, two elected female MPs ran on purely feminist platforms. Furthermore, a record number of women ran for elections, with 157 women submitting their candidacy, and 118 making it to electoral lists. Through UN Women’s support, 450 women improved their political knowledge to participate in the 2022 electoral cycle on party lists, while securing media partnership to spotlight the role of 15 women candidates in the political and democratic systems. Of the women who submitted their candidacy for parliamentary elections, more than 65 per cent benefitted fully or partially from support provided by UN Women, and more than 50 per cent of women who made electoral lists benefitted from support provided by UN Women. Moreover, 90 per cent of women who received an in-depth training package from the project ran for elections. Two of the eight women elected benefited significantly from UN Women support. The women’s movement in the country, a vital building block for stability, strengthened significantly and women accessed more spaces of tolerance and understanding through UN Women’s interventions. In support of a stronger and more coherent feminist movement in Lebanon, the Lebanon Feminist Civil Society Platform (herein, Feminist Platform) expanded and solidified its purpose as a key convening and advocacy space for feminist actors in Lebanon, by endorsing a roadmap for action and an organisational structure. It focused its advocacy efforts on issues of women’s political representation, including advocating for a gender quota – which was introduced in Parliament and debated in plenary – a first for Lebanon – but did not pass and remains in committee. The Feminist Platform identified a list of critical gender commitments, grounded in Lebanon’s international normative commitments, that parties and candidates should uphold in the 2022 parliamentary elections and lobbied potential candidates to adopt it as part of their electoral programmes. Furthermore, the Feminist Platform issued six statements on women’s rights in the context of participation in elections. Further, the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) embraced the strategic focus of the Feminist Platform. Specifically, NCLW publicly supported advocacy and calls by the Feminist Platform for the implementation of a gender quota and brought these joint concerns to the sixty-sixth (66th) session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2022. This support by NCLW demonstrates the influential role played by the Feminist Platform and its potential to contribute constructively to inclusive sustainable development in Lebanon.

Governments and civil society support progress on implementation of normative and policy frameworks, and work together to drive forward legislative change and reform

In 2021, gender responsive legislative change and reform has achieved as a result of UN Women’s support and collaboration with national and international stakeholders. Following UN Women’s support to the 2020 passage of the anti-sexual harassment law, UN Women collaborated with academic institution the American University of Beirut to work with employers to adopt anti-SH policies in their workplaces. Technical drafting workshops with private sector HR representatives were hosted, and one example of impact is that the HOLDAL Group realigned and developed measures and guidance to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. In addition, UN Women worked with UNDP to push forward advocacy around a Temporary Special Measures, particularly gender quotas, in electoral processes. In October 2021 UN Women funded the National Commission for Lebanese Women ((NCLW) the gender machinery) to develop a gender quota proposal. It then supported female parliamentarians, the UN Women hosted Feminist Platform (52 NGOs) and the NCLW to echo calls for the application of a gender quota, contributing to a gender quota legislative proposal developed by NCLW reaching Parliament and a debate on the quota being hosted. It also generated increased attention to the issue of the quota from the international community. These statements and collaboration were the direct result of UN Women’s efforts to increase dialogue and cooperation between State entities and feminist civil society in Lebanon, during a time when space for open dialogue is shrinking. Finally, continued work was undertaken in support of advocacy for a unified personal status law (UPSL). While a UPSL is a long-term objective, the current personal status law system underpins gender inequality in Lebanon, and continued advocacy for its reform is necessary to ensure it remains a key demand of political actors. UN Women supported advocacy generated a public statement from the Ministry of Interior listing efforts and progress made by the directorate to remove discrimination against women and a public dialogue on remaining discriminatory measures in the civil status law. In the lead up to the 2022 election in Lebanon, UN Women developed and begin implementing a comprehensive strategy to support women’s political representation. This included bespoke campaign support to four hundred and fifty (450) female potential candidates, who improved their political knowledge, while securing media partnerships to spotlight the role of women candidates in the political and democratic systems and to address issues of violence against women in Lebanon’s elections.