General Union of Syrian Women
Encyclopedia
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
. GUSW was founded in 1967, as a merger of different existing women's groups. The president of GUSW, as of 2004, is Souad Bakkour, MP.
GUSW represents Syria in relations to various United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
programmes and agencies, such as participating the Beijing Conference
Fourth World Conference on Women
The United Nations convened the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace on 4-15 September 1995 in Beijing, China. 189 governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 non-governmental organizations participated in the Conference...
, UNIFEM
UNIFEM
The United Nations Development Fund for Women, commonly known as UNIFEM was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International Women's Year. Its first director was Dr. Margaret Snyder, Ph.D...
, FAO
Fão
Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....
, UNDP, etc.
On April 7, 2006 GUSW released a report, developed in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, on domestic violence against women in Syria. The report was seen as ground-breaking, as domestic violence is often seen as an intra-family affair in the country.