Lebanese Ministry of Information
Minister of Information, Manal Abdel Samad Najd, on Saturday delivered Lebanon’s speech at a high-level electronic meeting with UN delegation representatives and with dignitaries from Qatar, Nigeria, Kenya, Costa Rica, Sweden, the African Union, Italy, the IMF, and Lebanon, on “The Impact Women Leaders Are Having in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic”.
The following is Her Excellency’s full speech:
“Thank you, and I would like to thank all their excellencies for their efforts to highlight the positive and strong role that women play to change this world for the best.
As well, I would like to share a heartfelt thank you to Her Excellency Ambassador Alya Al-Thani, the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations and all those who made today’s event possible.
The global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a massive negative impact on all of humanity and not only when it comes to health, but also to the livelihood of people. The world economy has lost trillions of dollars; hundreds of millions of persons have lost their jobs; And as the pandemic continues to claim lives, there are families out there who have lost loved ones, their bread winner, or dear friends.
For the first time in a long time, humanity is united against one enemy, and in that sense I see a silver lining where we can create a long-lasting impact by joining hands (even if virtually) to create positive initiatives to help the most vulnerable, especially women and children, and to lead by example as officials and as women in our respective societies.
Lebanon was among the first nations to take swift action within the first week of our very first recorded case of Covid-19. Five months have passed; and though the number of cases recorded remain among the lowest worldwide, yet every case is considered a challenge to my country and every loss of life is a tragedy.
At our ministry, we launched as well as helped promote government initiatives to raise awareness against the pandemic, support education via TVs and tablets, and engage in dialogue with professionals, citizens and NGos to better understand how we can help;
What does not help is the continued spread of disinformation and fake news tied to the pandemic. causing further panic, and serious health risks.
For us at the Ministry of Information, combatting fake news is crucial because it can harm people’s physical and mental health, and possibly lead to loss of lives.
And as part of our work to ensure clear and responsible communication and counter the growing scourge of fake news, we held a partnership with WHO, UNICEF and UNDP. This partnership includes three phases:
1- An integrated campaign to fight the most-shared rumors carried through TVs and digital media, and includes animated videos displaying rumors vs facts.
2- A rumor log that allows us to record details of the rumors, classify them and keep a note of any subsequent actions taken.
3- And a dedicated website will be also available to allow people to report and to fact-check any news they’ve heard of.
Your excellencies, throughout the past five months, we have noticed a steady rise in cases related to violence and domestic abuse against women and children globally, regionally and on a local level here in Lebanon. The home confinement and curfew taken as measures to curb the spread of the virus have had a negative impact in terms of the increased number of domestic violence and abuse of women.
There has been a reported surge in the number of gender-based violence recorded during the first five months of the year as opposed to the same period a year before according to official numbers obtained from the Ministry of Interior, UN partners and NGOs. Women and girls reportedly say they feel less safe since the COVID-19 lockdown in Lebanon.
The 1745 Internal Security Firces hotline dedicated for domestic violence against women, showed that received calls nearly doubled between March 2020 and May 2020. 97 calls were recorded in March vs 161 calls in May.
The first four days of June have seen 11 calls so far.
KAFA, an active NGO in Lebanon, reportedly saw an increase in calls to their hotline during the month of May to 938; that is twice the number of calls received in April, and four times in March, the beginning of COVID-19 confinement measures.
As a member of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, I would like to highlight the Commission’s efforts on the matter, including holding partnerships with the Internal Security forces and the UN to combat and raise awareness against violence against women, especially domestic violence…
While at the Ministry of Information level and as a minister, we have supported and continue to support and spread the Commission’s initiatives and campaigns launched by the aforementioned parties.
Your Excellencies, we have a major role to play as women leaders, wherever we are.
As a mother, and a female minister, I am under constant pressure to lead by example not only for my daughter, but also to the millions of girls in my nation and the hundreds of millions of girls and women in my region and beyond. This is especially true because the spotlight is always on female leaders not only to record their achievements, but also to see when will they fail.
It is a harder task when being a female leader in patriarchal societies as not everyone is lucky to be born into an understanding and loving family.
Your Excellencies, thank you for allowing me the time to share our efforts in Lebanon with you and for lending me your ears.
Stay strong, continue to lead and God bless.”
NNA
