PARD, together with the women’s committees mobilizes communities for the participation in Advocacy Campaigns for Women Rights in particular and for Palestinian Rights in Lebanon in general, which are often interconnected. For example, the citizen law of Lebanon is still gender discriminating against Lebanese women who are married to Palestinian men which deprives their children from attaining the Lebanese citizenship. Such campaigns were organized typically from a coalition of Lebanese and Palestinian NGOs, e.g. the Lebanese Palestinian Coalition for the Rights of Work to the Palestinian Refugees. PARD has joined these activities in the past. Furthermore, a recent coalition has been formed of NGOs working in the Palestinian communities to claim the “right to land property” for Palestinians, so that families who have bought and built houses and apartments outside the camps can register them legally. These campaigns have had the additional effect, to strengthen the relations between Lebanese and Palestinians and overcoming the sense of isolation that Palestinians have vis-à-vis the official Lebanese policy. This type of cooperation has been intensified on the local level with the Lebanese authorities and Lebanese neighborhoods which has led to a stronger integration of the project within the Palestinian communities. Amid recent protests against the update on the Lebanese labor code that started in 2019 by the Lebanese minister of labor, Palestinians have been calling for a complete elimination of the work permit requirement. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions issued a statement calling on the government to “suspend the procedures of the Labor Ministry and cancel the [requirement for] a work permit” and “accelerate the Lebanese Palestinian dialogue … to issue legislation guaranteeing our people the right to work without a work permit and benefit from social security, and the right to own property and the adoption of all human rights.”
No Comments