Woman and Law conference opened in Jordan

Works of the " woman and law " conference which is organized by the ministry of justice in collaboration with the American initiative for partnership in the Middle East was opened yesterday with the participation of 70 judiciary representatives, for 16 Arab states.

During its two day deliberations the conference, which was opened by Queen Rania al-Abdullah, wife of the Jordanian King, was to discuss three areas pertaining to woman, judiciary and developing judiciary practices in the region, justice and human rights.

In an inaugural speech, the Jordanian minister of justice, Salah Eddine al-Bashir, explained that the convening of the conference comes within the recommendations of the Arab judiciary forum which was held in Bahrain in September 2003.

Judge Tahani al-Haballi, one of the Egyptian participants in the conference said that the conference aims at exchanging expertise and experiences in the field of Arab women's participation in judiciary and the law activities.

Several participants in the conference expressed their hope to develop legislations in the Arab states so as to take into account women's rights on the ground of her growing role in society.

The conference, however, is attended by judges in academics, lawyers and law personnel from Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Jordan as well as representatives for the European Union and the UK.