Egypt’s National Dialogue participants call for issuing legislations to criminalize domestic violence

CAIRO – 22 June 2023: A number of participants in a session for the social axis of Egypt’s National Dialogue have called for issuing legislations to criminalize domestic violence and abuses.

This comes as experts and remembers of political parties and entities gathered on Thursday to discuss threats to family stability and social cohesion in Egypt in the fourth week of the National Dialogue.

Abeer Al-Erian, a member of the Coordination’s Committee of Parties' Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP), urged issuing a unified law against domestic violence as soon as possible.

The law should clearly identify the crimes of domestic violence and impose a penalty for each crime based on its dangers for the families and the society, Erian said.

The law must take into account electronic developments and crimes of violence, threats and extortion that are carried out electronically, she added.

Erian urged establishing psychological care centers for women and children, who are victims of domestic violence, in order to provide them with treatment and counseling.

She also called for the National Council for Women (NCW) to announce a hotline for reporting cases of violence against women.

Naglaa El-Gazzar, a representative of the Civil Movement, also called for issuing a unified law to criminalize domestic and social violence and a law to protect witnesses who report violence cases to police.

Dalia Al-Atrebi, assistant head of the Conference Party, called for the establishment of more psychological clinics for children and family members who are exposed to domestic violence.

In remarks during the dialogue, Atrebi also called for preventing scenes of domestic violence from all media, including drama and cinema.

She also urged developing deterrent laws against those who practice domestic violence.

For her part, Wessam El-Arabi, a representative of the Justice Party, called for enacting a law that guarantees the free circulation of information.

This would facilitate access to accurate and comprehensive data that contribute to understanding the reality of gender problems and directing policies and programs effectively, Arabi explained.

She also called for taking serious steps to protect witnesses in the cases of violence and providing monitoring and accountability mechanisms to ensure the implementation of relevant laws.

According to data by the Egyptian statistical agency CAPMAS, 31 percent of married or previously women from 15 to 49 years of age experienced a form of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by their spouses in 2021.