Abstract
Lebanese civil society activism to change the policy on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Lebanon, in particular Domestic Violence (DV), was successful after more than a decade in breaking down the legislative barrier and passing a new law that protects women from violence. Through the leadership and coordination of the Lebanese feminist organization “KAFA Violence and Exploitation” Law number “293” was passed. It aimed at criminalizing DV and at creating a protective sphere for victimized women. The adoption of the new Law, along with the religious-secular debate and the social campaigning, took place amid politically challenging moments in the Lebanese public policy landscape. The analysis, based on a qualitative approach and mostly relying on Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework, attempts to give an accurate account of the path of contentious politics and the subsequent policymaking and legislative actions that resulted in the DV bill. We pay particular attention to the unstable political conditions of Lebanon at the time, which make this an interesting case study on influencing policymaking in a context of uncertainty.
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Notes
- 1.
An article of the Lebanese criminal law, which entails arresting a murderer or a suspect in light of the occurrence of a crime
- 2.
In January 2017, the murderer of Roula Yaacoub was admitted to the court again and the case is being reexamined by North Lebanon’s court.
- 3.
The personal status code in Lebanon is constituted of 18 codes that were stated during the French mandate to guide the personal issues of the citizens belonging to the 18 religious sects.
- 4.
In MST there are three types of agendas: a public agenda (what is discussed in civil society and the media), a policy (what is under consideration by policymakers, bureaucrats, and parliament) and decision agenda. Only when an issue reaches the decision agenda of a government, subsequent policy formulation, adoption and implementation are (more or less) guaranteed.
- 5.
MST was developed by Kingdon in the 1980s with only the US institutional framework in mind; later it was experimentally widened to (western) Europe and some developing countries outside the Anglosphere and Europe.
- 6.
One of the most significant events that contributed in creating a supportive public audience was the murder of Roula Yaacoub, with the absence of the adequate legal reaction.
- 7.
In a study of Mary-Rose Zalzal “Women’s complaints between the criminal law and the protection law”, in 2009, among 385 of violence cases filed in the courts of Mount Lebanon, 188 cases of DV cases where women are victims were recorded. This number, according to Zalzal, does not only reflect the magnitude of the problem in terms of numbers but also, sheds the light on the early readiness of women to use legal measures for protection, despite the absence of a protective law by then, therefore the importance of having a specific law.
- 8.
Reports from entities concerned with women rights reported an increase in the rate of domestic violence and mentioned that Lebanon is ranked on the bottom of the list of countries that respect women rights (Guidanian 2010).
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Moussawi, F., Yassin, N. (2019). Civil Society Advocacy and Policy Entrepreneurship: Examining the Making of the Law 293 to Criminalize Domestic Violence in Lebanon. In: Yassin, N., Hoppe, R. (eds) Women, Civil Society and Policy Change in the Arab World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02089-7_4
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