Promoting the Empowerment of Women in Arab Countries

Provided United Nations Member States with expert opinion and recommendations regarding policies to empower women in the political, economic, and social fields.

The Doha International Institute for Family Studies and development (DIIFSD), in collaboration with the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender issues and Advancement of Women at United Nations (OSAGI), organized a colloquium on the Empowerment of Women in the Arab countries in Tunis on 5-6 October 2010.

The conference addressed key issues including: gender empowerment and socio-economic development of society, the main impediments in the region, the adoption of appropriate policy responses and legal reforms, the role of the State, and the ways and means to join forces with civil society to empower women.

Background materials

• Introduction
• Agenda
• Statement by Her Excellency Noor Al Malki
• Statement by Patience Stephens
• Recommendations
• List of Participants

Papers

• “Why the Life-Course Approach to Gender Empowerment is Important?”
  by Astrid Stuckelberger
• Making Policy Responses More Effective
  by Faith Innerarity
• Economic and social empowerment of women in Qatar society
  by Fatema Al Kubaisi (Arabic)
• Women empowerment – challenging patriarchy: Indian experience
  by Ranjana Kumari
• Women’s participation at the National level and institutional capacity of the State and civil society to support women’s empowerment: a perspective from the Republic of Ireland
  by Joanna McMinn
• Gender mainstreaming as a pathway to empowerment: the case of Namibia
  by Julie Newton
• Empowerment of women in political and societal decision making process
  by Kaltham Al Ghanem (Arabic)
• Women’s Empowerment: Concepts and Contexts
  by Layachi Anser
• Women’s participation at the national level: what has been achieved and what could be done to overcome existing impediments?
  by Lilit Asatryan
• Empowerment and Gender Rebalancing
  by Maria Amparo Cruz
• Voice and means: two essential tools for making gender policy responses more effective
  by Patricia Cortes
• The women’s status in the ESCWA region Achievement and Challenges
  by Rania Al Jazairi (Arabic)
• “Project WORLD: Women and the International Landscape of Women with Disabilities”
  by Richard G. Wilkins
• Mainstreaming the gender perspective into social development
  by Ronald Wiman
• Rights of older women
  by Sergei Zelenev
• A view from the west: Religious, Cultural and Political consideration on Empowerment of Arabic Women
  by Tracey McDonald
• Women’s Empowerment and Human Rights
  by Yakýn Ertürk