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By virtue of its mandate, NCW is required to advise on draft laws and
decisions pertaining to women prior to their submission to the competent
authorities and to recommend amendments to laws, draft laws and decisions
needed for the advancement of women. Based on studies and consultations
conducted by NCW the following laws were reviewed/amended:
Nationality Law 26/1975 was reviewed to resolve the discrimination against
women in their right to pass nationality to their children. Nationality laws
from other Arab countries were studied for comparison; several joint
meetings with representatives from the Ministries of Justice and the
Interior were convened for this purpose. NCW was part of the joint committee
established by the Ministry of Justice for amending the Egyptian nationality
law, based on the principle of constitutional equality. As a result, the
nationality law was amended by Law 154/2004 to achieve equality between
Egyptian fathers and mothers in their right to pass their Egyptian
nationality to their children.
NCW proposed a new family law, which was presented to the legislative
administration in the Ministry of Justice. Members of NCW were members of
the Drafting Committee formed by the Ministry of Justice which led to the
promulgation of law no. 10 for 2004 establishing family courts.
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Based on the recurrence of
complaints received by the Ombudsman's Office regarding the difficulty of
implementing court-ordered alimony, NCW proposed the creation of a family
insurance system, with the aim of creating a family insurance fund that
would advance women with the alimony until it was recovered from the husband
through implementation of the law. Law 11/2004 was issued with the active
participation of NCW members in the drafting committee formed by the
Ministry of Justice.
NCW, in cooperation with the National Council for Childhood and
Motherhood, held several consultation meetings with social workers,
psychologists and members of Family Dispute Settlement Offices in six
governorates (Cairo, Giza, Qalyoubiya, Alexandria, Beheira and Marsa Matrouh).
The aim of these meetings was to reinforce the philosophy on which the
Family Court was based, to solve the administrative and legal problems that
might be faced, and to train the staff of the family courts on the skills of
reconciliation and dispute settlement. NCW will extend these meetings to the
remaining governorates. It will also organize, in cooperation with
specialized experts, short-and long-term training sessions for staff working
in family courts, e.g. judges, prosecutors, social workers, staff of the
Dispute Settlement Offices, court officers, and administrators.
NCW prepared a study on raising the age of custody for children to 15
years for both boys and girls. The proposed amendment was adopted by the
People's Assembly in March 2005, after obtaining the approval of Al-Azhar's
Islamic Research Academy.
NCW proposed drafting a new unified and comprehensive personal status law
including detailed and clear provisions for the implementation of the law
and awareness raising. NCW used the proposed unified personal status law
prepared by the League of Arab States as a guide.
A study on discrimination against women in the personal exemption limit in
the tax law was undertaken that resulted in the promulgation of a new tax
law (91/ 2005) that removed the discriminatory article and setting
taxpayers’ exemptions without discrimination between men and women.
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