AMAN Coalition held yesterday a consultative meeting in Best Eastern Hotel-Ramallah with female leaders and representatives from official and feminist organizations, to discuss means of cooperation to integrate the Anti-Corruption System into women organizations’ programs.
AMAN’s Commissioner, Dr. Azmi al Shuaibi, opened the meeting by presenting his vows and greetings to Palestine’s women on the occasion of International Women’s Day. He continued saying that women are capable of enforcing the values and Anti-Corruption System even though they often fall victims to corruption. He confirmed that men occupy senior positions and centers of power in the public office in Palestine, which impedes women’s chances of arriving to these positions and participating in the decision-making process. He recommended the creation of feminist committees inside public organizations and syndicates to represent the voice of Palestinian women.
The acting executive director in AMAN Coalition, Mr. Isam Haj Hussein, presented a recently published report about the role of Palestinian women in combatting corruption. Palestinian women, he stated, acknowledge corruption as misuse of authority in all its forms, including social and legal discrimination, killing women, sexual harassment, deprivation from heritage, in addition to other forms of corruption mentioned in the Anti-Corruption law such as Wasta, favoritism, nepotism and bribery.
Mr. Hussein tackled the impact of corruption on women as she is the victim of the low level of services, in terms of quantity and quality, because of corruption especially theft and waste of public funds. Moreover, women suffer from administrative corruption such as Wasta, favoritism, nepotism and sexual harassment.
Mr. Al Shuaibi presented the Initiative of Citizenship Pact to enforce integrity and combatting corruption, represented in a group of moral commitments to fight corruption. He encouraged the present leaders and participants to sign and participate in the fight against corruption as the signing ceremony of the Pact by the leading women took place during the meeting.
Ms. Nahid Abu Ta’imeh, Gender Focal Point in the University of Birzeit, presented a draft statement “Palestinian Women's Voice Against Corruption”, prepared by AMAN and a group of women representing leaders in several work sectors. The statement was warmly welcomed by the attendees especially because it expressed the concerns and sufferance of women due to corruption. It also proposes several challenges and requests that AMAN will integrate in cooperation with the consultative committee with the aim of issuing the official statement in the days to come. The official statement will be integrated with the national statements of the following countries: Tunis, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt in order to publish a regional statement representing the voice of women against corruption in the Arab region.
To mention that this activity is implemented in cooperation with Transparency International and funded by the Swedish Agency for International Development.