Beirut – 25 November 2025
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Feminist Platform in Lebanon organized a conference entitled “Feminist Solidarity — A Force to End Violence and Discrimination against Women and Girls,” held at Metropolis Cinema in Beirut on 25 November 2025. The conference brought together around 300 participants from across Lebanon, including representatives of feminist and human rights organizations, experts and activists, as well as Members of Parliament and international partners.
The Feminist Platform in Lebanon is a coalition of 48 feminist organizations and activists working collectively to advance women’s and girls’ rights and influence public policy from a feminist perspective. UN Women acts as a facilitator for the Platform’s work by providing technical and administrative support and strengthening coordination among members, while fully preserving the Platform’s independence in setting its priorities, positions, and strategies.
The importance of this conference comes at a time when Lebanon is going through a critical period marked by overlapping economic, social, and political challenges, which have significantly affected the lives of women and girls and led to an increase in various forms of violence — within families, communities, the economy, politics, and the digital sphere. In this context, the Feminist Platform provides a collective space that amplifies the voices of feminist organizations and supports their constructive participation in national dialogues and in shaping more inclusive and just public policies.
Building on this role, the conference served as a national space to discuss the growing violence faced by women and girls, analyze its structural causes, and highlight the challenges that hinder access to protection, justice, and equality. Discussions also focused on the critical role played by feminist organizations on the ground, and the importance of strengthening institutional and community support for their efforts in prevention, response, and advocacy.
The conference consisted of four parallel sessions addressing interlinked forms of violence:
• Economic violence
• Domestic and social violence
• Violence against women in politics
• Violence targeting feminist organizations and women human rights defenders
Participants presented in-depth analyses and firsthand testimonies reflecting the reality of women across different regions, emphasizing that the escalation of violence is due not only to legislative gaps, but also to weak law enforcement, the persistence of discriminatory practices, the decline in institutional protection, the shrinking of civic space, and the rising attacks on activists and feminist organizations in recent years.
Key Recommendations Issued by the Conference
First: Recommendations from the Session on Economic Violence
• Adopt political and rights-based approaches that link economic violence to all other forms of violence, while integrating the concerns of women with disabilities and strengthening cooperation between feminist and labor movements.
• Develop a modern legislative framework, including accession to ILO Convention 190, reform of labor and social security laws, adoption of a civil personal status law, and recognition of civil and economic rights for Palestinian refugees.
• Strengthen women’s access to justice by enforcing laws, supporting judicial independence, and addressing individual and institutional barriers.
• Integrate women’s priorities into reconstruction policies and emergency plans, and ensure their participation in designing economic and social policies.
• Provide national data and programs that support economic justice, including implementation of disability quotas, support for small and medium enterprises, and social protection and mental health programs.
• Provide support tools such as micro-loans, legal awareness, and programs tailored to rural and agricultural communities.
• Strengthen the protection of women agricultural workers from all forms of exploitation — including informal practices linked to “shawish” systems — through effective monitoring mechanisms, fair and safe working conditions, clear complaint and protection pathways, and criminalization of assaults on agricultural lands.
Second: Recommendations from the Session on Domestic and Social Violence
• Adopt approaches that identify and address the structural roots of violence in times of peace and conflict.
• Approve a comprehensive legislative package including: a civil personal status law, a law on digital violence, a comprehensive law to combat violence against women, amendments to the Penal Code to abolish discriminatory provisions, and accession to the Rome Statute.
• Develop responsive national policies that integrate the needs of the most vulnerable groups, including the second National Action Plan for UNSCR 1325, integration of sexual and reproductive health into curricula, and mechanisms to protect survivors and witnesses and address stigma.
• Strengthen protection services through an integrated system involving the judiciary and security institutions, remove barriers to accessing justice, improve coordination between governmental and non-governmental actors, reinforce referral systems, and engage municipalities in response efforts.
• Facilitate the registration of unregistered women and ensure access to official documentation to reduce exploitation and enable access to justice and essential services.
Third: Recommendations from the Session on Violence against Women in Politics
• Strengthen the legislative framework to protect women from political violence, including confidential reporting mechanisms and codes of conduct within political parties, municipalities, and media institutions.
• Develop a permanent platform to monitor and document violations against women in politics, based on safe complaint mechanisms.
• Strengthen women’s presence in the media through gender-sensitive coverage policies and training media professionals to monitor political violence.
• Promote democratic awareness among young women and provide technical support to women at all stages of the electoral process.
• Support the adoption of women’s quotas in the electoral law and voluntary quotas within parties, establish feminist political training academies, and strengthen partnerships with Parliament, unions, and local actors.
Fourth: Recommendations from the Session on Violence Targeting Feminist Organizations and Women Human Rights Defenders
• Recognize structural discrimination and the “backlash” targeting feminist movements, and work toward a legal framework that protects associations and their staff.
• Call on donors to adopt sustainable and flexible funding that is responsive to the local context and addresses structural challenges.
• Raise awareness of the role of feminist organizations and strengthen solidarity among them, unify vision and messaging, and build partnerships with the state, municipalities, and unions.
• Develop effective local referral mechanisms and enhance coordination among organizations, while reorganizing relations with the Ministry of Interior and other authorities to ensure a safe environment for civil society work.
• Protect civic space from restrictions through transparent accountability mechanisms and stronger support and solidarity networks among organizations.
At the conclusion of the conference, the Feminist Platform in Lebanon reaffirmed its commitment to continued collective action and to advocating for a safer and more just environment for women and girls, stressing that feminist solidarity and collective effort remain the path toward real change — despite growing challenges.