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Petition for family law
CAMPAIGNERS are aiming for 10,000 signatures on a petition being launched on Wednesday calling for a family law. It is spearheaded by the Respect Movement, which is under the umbrella of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) and the National Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women. The petition will run for three weeks and will then be sent to members of the Shura Council and Parliament. The cabinet sent a draft family law, one for Shi'ite and one for Sunni, to Parliament yesterday, BHRWS regional and international relations director and Workers Charity Fund president Faisal Fulad told the GDN. "We need to get signatures from people in Bahrain to tell them (Parliament and the Shura Council) to implement the family law, because they can stop the law. "The government has done its job, now it is up to them and we want to pressure them." Mr Fulad said the petition would be available at www.bhrws.org and those wishing to sign it could print it out and send it to Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, P.O. Box, 15055, Manama. The three-week petition is being launched to mark International Women's Day, which this year is held under the theme The Role of Women in Decision Making. Mr Fulad said they would also be seeking the support of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. "Bahrain joined the UN convention in 2001 and this includes the equal treatment for women," said Mr Fulad. "It's important we have the family law because the divorce and custody cases are increasing without protection for the mother and children. "Without the family law, society will be unstable. "Now women and children have no rights. A man can divorce his wife and put her on the streets and there is no law that can go against this. "There are also expatriates who marry Bahrainis and there are lots of abuse cases." Family law will also come under the spotlight in a weeklong programme, entitled Spring of Women, which will start on March 15. The event, which is also organised by the movement and the coalition, will feature art exhibitions and films about family law to raise awareness of this issue. Details of the programme will be available from March 10. "I would like to see a family law which lays out the duties and rights for the husband and wife," said Mr Fulad. "They [Sharia judges] will have a book to go by, at the moment we have nothing set in a book about custody, or divorce." |
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