**Statement Issued by The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection**

CWLRCP announces its rejection of the new Education Law of 2013 issued by members of the Legislative Council in Gaza. The CWLRCP believes the law perpetuates a culture of gender-based discrimination through Article 46, which prohibits the mixing of male and female students in educational institutions after the age of nine. Further, Article 47 stipulates that the Ministry shall work to feminize girls’ schools, and Article 1, concerning definitions, fails to apply to both genders, particularly in the definitions of “student” and “teacher.”

The Center views the continued issuance of laws by the Change and Reform bloc in the Legislative Council in Gaza as detrimental to building Palestinian society on the basis of justice and equality. It also believes that such actions do not serve the national cause of achieving national unity, but rather contribute to the entrenchment of division among the Palestinian people along political and geographical lines between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

It should be noted that members of the Change and Reform bloc have issued a series of laws based on what is known as the “proxy system,” which is not governed by recognized legal instruments. Executive regulations for the enacted laws, as well as regulations specific to municipalities and governorates, have also been issued. This legislative activity is conducted unilaterally, while the Legislative Council remains fully suspended and without consulting civil society organizations and relevant experts in the laws being passed or the administrative decisions affecting the Palestinian social fabric.

The CWLRCP emphasizes its rejection of the new Education Law because it is based on a culture of discrimination against women by promoting gender segregation and is not founded on a professional basis. The Center believes this pushes society back to bygone eras where there is no respect for women’s rights and where they are excluded from public life.

The CWLRCP warns of the seriousness of the current situation in the Gaza Strip regarding the issuance of laws affecting Palestinian society by circumventing the legally established legislative mechanisms. It calls on the Change and Reform bloc to suspend the implementation of these laws until they are discussed and approved by the Legislative Council in its entirety, in a manner that serves to end the abhorrent division and strengthen the national unity of the Palestinian people.

CWLRCP