The recruitment of women as Shariah judges has been suggested as a solution to the problems faced by females at Islamic-oriented courts in Bahrain by the Freedom in the World 2008 report.
It highlights that women face hardships due to delay in court proceedings especially in divorce cases.Although the kingdom recruited the first women judge in 2006 for a civilian court, the Shariah courts mainly dealing with marital conflicts have no female judge.
Published recently by the Freedom House, the report also calls upon Bahrain to sign the optional protocol of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that allows women to file complaints with the CEDAW committee if they are denied justice in their own countries.
Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organisation that conducted the part on Bahrain with the assistance of Bahraini human rights and woman activist Dr Sabika Najjar.
On the scale of 1-7 with seventh being rated as the least free country, the kingdom was rated fifth on the 'map of freedom’ for political rights and civil liberties.
The report judged the kingdom on five parameters -non-discrimination and access to justice, autonomy, security and personal freedom, economic rights and equal opportunity, political rights and civic voice and social and cultural rights. The report says that despite efforts of the government and NGOs, there was no codified family law in the kingdom.
The recommendations of the report include women to be represented in Municipal Councils. A gender integration plan to increase women in decision-making in private and public sectors was also suggested.
- Khaleej Times
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment