Pan-Arab alliance needed,Jordanian Women's Union

To prevent the trafficking of human beings creating a regional legal framework. Enhance regulatory integration between the southern and northern coast of the Mediterranean, because new forms of slavery have become an emergency for the Mediterranean. This is the aim of the Jordanian Women's Union (JWU), the oldest organisation promoting the protection of women's rights in the Hashemite kingdom, which has been active since 1945. This is what emerged from the summit "The Mediterranean: a sea of slaves", organised in Rome yesterday by Un ponte per... In Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, violence, abuse, harassment and slavery concern particularly foreign women who migrated from other African countries and the Far East in search of a job. "The phenomenon of migration in the Mashrek countries started in the '90s'', Jordanian Senator Amneh Zu'bi Falah, the Chairwoman of JWU, pointed out. Of course, there are some differences between the three countries. In Jordan and Lebanon, the object of abuse are especially foreign maids and cleaning women, while in Egypt, women working in houses are frequently underage: young women who were either forced to leave the countryside and move to town or the daughters of migrant families having to start working at an extremely young age. Another substantial difference is that, apart from Jordan, none of these countries has a specific law protecting working women. "From the legislative point of view," JWU Chairwoman stated," the Jordanian kingdom is one step ahead of Egypt and Lebanon." Indeed, Jordan was among the first Arab countries that implemented the standard labour contracts also with regard to foreign women. In 2008, foreign women were included in the labour protection law and human trafficking was introduced in the criminal code. Nothing similar was ever attempted in Egypt or Lebanon. In order to tackle this challenge, the regional alliance might therefore prove a valid instrument. "Our idea is to achieve a common reform of family law. "This is the reason why we are considering an alliance at the regional level, while in 2011 we started up a project aimed at fighting human trafficking, violence against and exploitation of migrants in Mashrek, throughout the strengthening of the legislative framework and legal protection, reception and psychological assistance services'', the Jordanian MP concluded. During the meeting the director of the centre for legal assistance for Egyptian women, Azza Soliman, pointed out that there is a law against women's trafficking in Egypt too, "but, unfortunately, a lot of lawyers do not even know about it." A lawyer and human right advocate, Soliman took part in the revolts in Tahrir Square. "Right now", Soliman said, "women are under attack." Several laws fro women ''were advocated by the much hated Suzanne Mubarak and are now being criticised by the Islamists in power. In order to make our revolution complete, we need to talk about women and their rights. Without such debate, it is just impossible to talk about democracy."