(Sanaa) - Yemen should protect women’s rights by ensuring that its new constitution has adequate protections for women, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the head of the Rights and Freedoms Working Group of its National Dialogue process that was made public today.

 (Sanaa) –Yemen should protect its girls from the devastating effects of early marriage by setting 18 as the minimum age for marriage by law, Human Rights Watch said today. The current political transition and drafting process for a new constitution offer a unique opportunity for the Yemeni government to enact laws protecting the rights of girls.

Since the World Social Forum that was held in Tunisia, significant political and social changes have taken place in the region and the world. These developments challenge the social movements, and we require more consultations to determine our future strategies, particularly concerning the dynamics of social forums.

At the same time, it is important to make an assessment of the organization of the WSF, Tunisia in 2013 and draw lessons for the Maghreb-Mashreq region, and our positioning in the process of social forums.

Therefore, we invite you to a meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Maghreb-Mashreq Social Forum on September 6th, 7th and 8th, 2013 in Tunis.
The agenda proposal is the following:

The sight of hundreds of thousands of Arabs marching on the streets of a number of Arab countries, demanding their dignity and rights, will remain among the iconic images of the twenty-first century. The willingness of so many citizens to take such tremendous risks to their own lives, with thousands dying for their freedom, stunned a world long accustomed to the image of the resigned, subordinate, cynical Arab masses.