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Beirut, 30 September 2003 (United Nations Information Service)--Under
the auspices of Lebanese Minister of Justice Bahij Tabbara, the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA) will hold a regional capacity building workshop on
"Mainstreaming Gender-Based Violence into Development Programming"
from 2 to 3 October 2003 at the United Nations House, Riad Solh
Square, Beirut.
The Meeting, which will open at 9:00 am on Thursday 2 October,
aims to familiarize participants with the root causes and
manifestations of gender-based violence; introduce the notion of
power relations and unequal gender relations and their relation to
violence; and provide participants with knowledge, skills and
tools to mainstream gender based violence in their development
programming.
It worth mentioning that in the Arab region, the issue of
gender-based violence has come forward on the agenda of
governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) partly as a
result of two landmark events, namely the International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 and the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in
1995, which helped in highlighting the issue of Violence Against
Women as one of the 12 areas of priorities of the Beijing Platform
of Action. Moreover, although some taboo issues like female
genital mutilation and honor killings came to be known and debated
in public, the issue of violence against women remains
compartmentalized and excluded from mainstream development
concerns.
Participants in the meeting will be representatives from local
NGOs operating community development programs at the field level,
academics, experts on gender-based violence issues from Lebanon,
Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain, as well as concerned officials.
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