Beirut Arab University Admissions and Employment Non-Discrimination Policy – Statement

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Policies-and-Procedures

Beirut Arab University is committed to equal employment and admission opportunities; therefore, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, nationality, age, disability, sexual orientation, pregnancy consistent with the applicable governmental laws in Lebanon. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to: job selection, job assignment, compensation, performance evaluations, discipline, demotion, termination, benefits and training.

This policy also governs the admission of students and all campus programs, services and activities. BAU does not discriminate on the basis of gender in admission to or employment in its academic programs or activities. If at any time an employee feels that he/she has been subjected to or has observed discrimination, the employee must report such conduct to the Ethics and Conduct Committee at the Human Resources department so that an investigation can be initiated and appropriate action be taken. The confidentiality of all such inquiries and reports is respected to the fullest extent possible.

https://www.bau.edu.lb/BAUUpload/Library/Files/Uploaded%20Files/About-The-University/Rules-and-Regulation/Code_of_Ethics.pdf

• Students can raise concerns and make reports without fear of reprisal. Students are not retaliated against in any manner for reporting perceived discrimination pursuant to this policy. Anyone found to be engaging in any type of unlawful discrimination will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal of the student or employee from the university.
• Employees can raise concerns and make reports without fear of reprisal. Employees are not retaliated against in any manner for reporting perceived discrimination pursuant to this policy. Anyone found to be engaging in any type of unlawful discrimination will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal of the student or employee from the University.

Beirut Arab University Admissions and Employment Non-Discrimination Policy - Equal Access

BAU is committed to the policy that all persons have equal access to its programs, facilities and employment. Our University supports an environment that fosters respect and values all people. It promotes diversity with fair and impartial treatment of all students and employees in all terms and conditions of admissions and employment.

Beirut Arab University Gender Equality and Equal Pay Policy

https://www.bau.edu.lb/

Work with gender equality is a core value and mission at Beirut Arab University, where policies and procedures ensure that gender equality permeates all activities. This also applies to Faculties, museums and centers. Gender equality is about democracy and fundamental human rights, but also about the quality of our activities at Beirut Arab University and our legitimacy in society as one of the country’s primary institutions in research and education. Gender equality at work is both an objective and a process that involves:

• The University consciously promoting an organizational culture and a working environment that is inclusive and fair to both sexes.
• Education, professional strategy and incentive schemes designed to give qualified candidates and researchers of both sexes equal opportunities to develop their talent.
• An active recruitment policy that evens out unequal gender selection and indirect discrimination.
• That the share of women and men hired as academic staff reflects the gender distribution in the recruitment base.
• The salary of each employee is independent of gender, but rather based on merit, capabilities and quality of work to fairly judge the work of all the staff.

Non-discrimination and economic rights of non-nationals (art. 2)

https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/57d7f8804.pdf

1. Lebanon acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 21 April 1997, with a reservation concerning article 9, paragraph 2, thereof under which women should be granted equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children. This remains a controversial issue on which governmental authorities and civil society organizations have failed to reach agreement, although some progress has been made in regard to the residence facilities offered to foreign spouses of Lebanese women and their children (for further details, reference can be made to section II of this report).
2. Lebanon also made a reservation to article 16, paragraph 1, of the Convention, under which States Parties are required to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations, in view of Lebanon’s personal status laws concerning confessional communities (for further details, reference can be made to section II of this report).
3. Lebanon made a further reservation to article 29, paragraph 1, which specifies procedures for the settlement of disputes between States Parties concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention.
4. On 5 October 2005, Lebanon acceded to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which was adopted by the United Nations on 15 November 2000, and also to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
5. Lebanon also acceded to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 5 October 2000 and to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on 8 November 2004. It signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto on 4 June 2007 and, on 6 February 2007, signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
6. Within the framework of the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions concerning human rights, Lebanon acceded to the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) on 10 March 2003. On 11 September 2001, it also acceded to the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and adopted the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190).
7. The Lebanese authorities are continuing the policy that they have adopted in regard to foreign workers, which is based on non-discrimination on grounds of race, colour, sex, nationality, religion, political opinion or national or social origin. Lebanese laws apply to Lebanese nationals and foreigners alike, with equal rights except in regard to the right to acquire ownership of property, which is limited in the case of foreigners, and some occupations the exercise of which is restricted to Lebanese nationals. Although foreigners are employed in the private sector, their employment in the public sector is extremely limited due to the availability of the requisite Lebanese human resources and the fact that Lebanese applicants for posts in the public sector are required to pass special examinations which foreign applicants are not eligible to sit.
8. Equal right to the enjoyment of fundamental human rights (arts. 3, 4 and 5)
9. The principal measures that the Lebanese authorities have taken to achieve the purposes of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and particularly the right of self-determination and the right to equality, during the period covered by this report include the promulgation of a number of enactments, including:

• Act No. 686 of 16 March 1998, concerning compulsory and free primary education.
• Act No. 220 of 29 May 2000, concerning the rights of persons with disabilities.
• Act No. 422 of 6 June 2002, concerning juveniles in conflict with the law or at risk.
• Act No. 164 of 24 August 2011, concerning the punishment of human trafficking offences; · Act No. 216 of 30 March 2012, defining each year of a custodial sentence as a term of 9 months’ imprisonment.
• Act No. 293 of 7 May 2014, concerning the protection of women and other household members against domestic violence.

1. Lebanese society is characterized by its religious diversity insofar as its various regions are inhabited by 18 officially recognized confessional communities the political, social and cultural rights of which are diligently protected by the State. Recent years have witnessed numerous developments in regard to the right of self-determination and the right to equality. By way of example, civil society associations have endeavored to secure the exemption of Lebanese nationals from the provisions of the personal status laws regulating the confessional communities to which they belong and a number of citizens have submitted applications for deletion of the names of their communities from their personal identity documents. On 21 October 2008, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities decided that these applications should be accepted and, on 6 February 2009, he issued a further decision affirming that the human rights to which every citizen was entitled included the right to demand that his or her confessional affiliation be omitted or deleted from civil registry records.

Workgroup Diversity

https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/schbjournal/vol2/iss1/4/

“Workforce diversity”, was considered as a coin surfaced in the 1990s (Quinetta, 2019). There has been a growing urge to understand workforce diversity better, in a more profound manner than what is observed at the surface level (Jain and Verma, 1996). Allowing managers to understand the main obstacles facing diversifies workgroups. In the 1990s, emerge of globalization enforced a novel trend for working team diversity. Workgroups in this research are production-oriented, which is linked to the manufacturing or to the service industry. Diversity is all about differences and nuances. Even though many organizations are now providing what is known as “diversity training” for employees, however, it is mainly not a skill that employees get training on. (DuPont, 1999), diversity basically stands for "differences". In this research particularly, it means "differences within employees." The way an organization uses diversity defines whether it is an asset or a liability. Diversity can be accurately defined as a worldwide singularity that can be used with a set of differences, similarities or challenges amidst any collective mixture (Anita and Swamy, 2018). In addition, diversity is considered a group’s attribute. It habitually it is concerned with demographic differences among the members of a group (McGrath, Berdahl, and Arrow, 1995). It should be noted that diversity within a workgroup is not only tied to perceived characteristics, since it also encompasses invisible attributes such as various educational background, experience, learning style, creativity, and problem-solving aptitude (Nafukho et al., 2011). This research considers four main types of diversity, which widely used in the literature to examine the universal concept of diversity in different context, as follow:

Gender Diversity:

When discussing gender diversity in terms of a work environment, it means that employees from both sexes are hired at alike, receiving equal rewards for the same work, in addition to equal work promotion opportunities. Recently, both women and men work alongside in different careers. Mainly, there are no jobs that are more "female" or others that are more related to "male" roles. Accordingly, both are requested on a daily basis to interact with each other in a fair and equal way. This causes unrest and discomfort for some individuals, which lead to conflict within a certain workgroup. In Lebanon, women are perceived as non-aggressive, non-competitive, passive, and dependent; and are raised upon such values. They learn to sacrifice for the sake of relationships. While Males might learn how to play an early life role; they are predictable to be controlling, independent, and competitive. Individuals often expect others to react and respond in the same manner, considering different behavior as wrong behavior (Kauser and Tlaiss, 2011). Gender communication raises an opportunity for rectifying wrong ideas. Also, effective communication among a diverse workforce requires neglecting gender differences and offering equal opportunities for different individuals (DuPont, 1999).

Marital Status Diversity:

An employee is adjusted by his legal status, his family state, and his commitment towards his family responsibilities (Deshpande, 2013). Marital status is thought as to whether or not the worker is married, unmarried, widowed, single, live-in relation, separated or unmarried. This has a bearing on the worker’s work-life balance and social satisfactoriness within the geographic point and his performance. During this analysis, in this research, the classes of marital status are married, separated, and single.

Educational Diversity:

The educational qualifications mean certification the employees have acquired from his school, institute, college, and university, not only does the education qualify the employee to acquire jobs and positions in the hierarchy in the organization, but also it emphasizes the competency required by them to perform assigned job responsibilities (Deshpande, 2013). Workgroups have become the main structural units of most existing firms (Valls, et al., 2016). The idea that group members have varied perspectives, ideas, proficiencies, level of education, and information, supports this trend. When an organization faces problems, it is diverse workgroups that are better prepared and equipped to deal with these complex problems (West, 2001). Members of work teams in certain business sectors have been taught common key contents. Members with various educational levels are required due to distinct, complicated teams' jobs. Academic skills can be acquired by people according to availability, capability, and experience. Moreover, educational background impacts the employee’s perception of workforce diversity. Hence the educational background of the employee is a secondary dimension, depending upon the type of education acquired and skill acquired can make the person capable of doing the designated jobs (Deshpande, 2013).

Work Experience Diversity:

Work experience is the extent of experience in a certain job (McDaniel et al., 1988). It’s argued that relative individual differences in work experience and not complete ones yield individual differences in work knowledge, and work performance. Meanwhile, Avolio and colleagues (1990) pointed out that work experience can be considered as performance foreteller than age differences. Experience gives maturity to the employees and makes them aware of the work processes and the organizational expectations (Deshpande, 2013). Skilled workers are commonly viewed as reliable, faithful, and devoted. They are also seen as entities that have a robust work ethic and performance record. This is owing to long work experience in related fields.

Gender Based Violence [8]

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Medicine/Event/Gender-Based-Violence

The standing Committees SCORA and SCORE in LeMSIC in the Faculty of Medicine at Beirut Arab University organized an awareness event entitled "Gender Based Violence".
Students from the Faculty of Medicine emphasized and brought up this important topic through several games and several mind blowing statistics and numbers. They also did several scenarios in front of the students to try to help them imagine more how it is like to be in the place of any abused person and what to do in any case.

Internal Quality Audit

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Academic-Development-and-Quality-Assurance-Center/Internal-Quality-Audit

1. The internal quality audit at BAU is a systematic and independent investigation with the purpose of determining whether the actions and results referring to quality are in accordance with the BAU regulations and international accreditation bodies’ requirements, whether these regulations are suitable for achieving the set goals and they are really being implemented.
2. IQA at BAU focuses on some “Internal Evaluation Areas” for the enhancement of teaching and learning such as: Quality of Curricula, Implementation & Delivery of Curricula, Student Assessment, Student Progression and Achievement, Social Responsibility, Learning Resources and Student Life.
3. Each semester, the members of the University Quality Assurance Committee (UQAC) carry out site-visits to all Faculties and Branches to review documentation of curricular and extracurricular activities, the ongoing educational process, Faculty action plan and work-flow of the quality assurance system. In addition, believing in the effective role of students in directing their learning, in governance and in decision making processes, the Committee holds meetings with students to express their objective opinion toward their “Satisfaction” concerning academic freedom environment, equality-learning acquisition regardless of gender and disability, community involvement, learning resources, facilities and general services.
4. BAU measures internal quality assurance standards through reports issued by the UQAC, which concludes a summary of the Faculty’s strengths, weaknesses and prospects. The Faculty must give its reasoned opinion on whether the standards have been met for each area, and has to make specific proposals for improvement in particular areas.
5. The results of internal audit activities including site-visits, UQAC meetings and “Advisory Committees” feedback are documented as reports concluding significant risk and control issues, and including other matters that require the attention of senior management and decision-makers.

Lebanon and Human Rights Round Table Discussion

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Public-Relations/News/Lebanon-and-Human-Rights-Round-Table-Discussion

The Human Rights Center at Beirut Arab University represented by the Senior Specialist Salam Zahran, participated in a round table discussion entitled "Lebanon and Human Rights," that was held at the La Nau Cultural Center at the University of Valencia in Spain.

The discussion dealt with the Human Rights Situation in Lebanon in the context of the recent crisis in light of the financial collapse, Right to Health Medication during the pandemic, and Beirut Blast, with a focus on Lebanese women's rights and Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon. The seminar was accompanied with a photography exhibition by the photojournalist Germán Caballero which depicted the status of the Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon's Camps.

Awareness Workshop Celebrating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Public-Relations/News/Awareness-Workshop-Celebrating-the-International-Day-for-the-Elimination-of-Violence-against-Women

For the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women, the Human Rights Center at Beirut Arab University in collaboration with the Lebanese National Commission for UNESCO (LNCU) and Internal Security Forces ISF organized a workshop on Friday 4th of December 2020 at the village of Khrab El Hayatt- Akkar within the framework of 16 days to raise awareness globally on the elimination of violence against women.

The workshop, was represented by Dr. Tala Zein from the Lebanese National commission for UNESCO, Ms. Salam Zahran from the Human Rights Center at Beirut Arab University, and Major Youssef El Dekweir from the Internal security forces. It targeted 25 participants mainly females, aimed at increasing public awareness on violence against women; building capacity and understanding main definitions and concepts in the framework of Women’s Rights; engaging youth in promoting women’s rights and contribution to fight discrimination within their society. In addition, participants were trained on entrepreneur skills in developing projects and business.

A Seminar on Women’s Rights at BAU In Collaboration with the EU Delegation

https://www.bau.edu.lb/Public-Relations/Event/A-Seminar-on-Womens-Rights-at-BAU-In-Collaboration-with-the-EU-Delegation

The Human Rights Center at Beirut Arab University organized in collaboration with the European Union Delegation in Lebanon a seminar on “Women’s Rights: Challenges and Opportunities for Gender Equality in Lebanon”. The event which was held on the 3rd of December, 2013 was attended by Prof. Dr. Amr Galal El Adawi, President of BAU, Mrs. Angelina Ekhorest, European Union Ambassador, Mrs. Ursula Fahringer, Austrian Ambassador to Lebanon, Deans of Faculties, Mr. Issam Houri, BAU Secretary General, Wakf El Bir and Ihsan’s Members of Board of Trustees, Directors of BAU Centers, BAU Administrators, and 250 students from various majors.

Prof. Dr. Amr Galal El Adawi reiterated in his word the role of BAU in supporting human rights, in particular women’s rights, through the Human Rights Center, as well as the establishment of a specialized Women’s Studies Diploma and a legal clinic where students – under the supervision of licensed lawyers – aid disadvantaged target groups to fight for their rights.

Mrs. Angelina Ekhorest, European Union Ambassador, addressed the students, reminding the audience that Lebanon is an important partner to the EU, not only in terms of dealing with the Syrian crisis, but also in terms of human rights. This is manifest in the effectiveness of parliamentary elections and structural reforms in the economic and social sectors.

Dr. Omar Houri, Director of the BAU Human Rights Center reviewed in his word the foundations of a woman’s right to grant her family her nationality in accordance with the Lebanese Constitution and the International Law. He added that there are over 18000 Lebanese women married to foreigners in Lebanon. There are no accurate statistics as to the number of children in these marriages, but it is possible to imagine the amount prejudices these children and citizens are exposed to. Such discrimination impacts upon medical care, education, employment and other aspects of daily life.

The seminar also included an intervention by Mrs. Ursula Fahringer, Austrian Ambassador to Lebanon, and Lawyer Layla Awada from “Kafa”. The seminar was moderated by journalist Anne-Marie El Hage from L’Orient Le Jour.