subject: New Family - Advancing Family Rights In Israel [print this page] New Family - Advancing Family Rights In Israel
Advancing Family Rights In Israel
New Family is the first organization in Israel dedicated to advancing family rights and the rights of individuals within families. Led by experts in the field of law and civil rights, New Family is a human rights organization working to attain legal recognition of every family unit in Israel to ensure equal rights for every type of family.
What Is The Problem?
Every Individual in Israel Has the Right to Establish a Family!
Every Family in Israel Has Equal Rights Under the Law!
There is, however, no recognition of the family as a legal unit. There is no recognition of the basic right to establish a family. The Israeli establishment fails to recognize and tolerate many types of family units. Israeli law contains no definition of "family." As a result, the state recognizes only the "traditional" family. But today, only 58% of the families in Israel answer to this definition.
42% of Families in Israel Fall Outside the Consensus!
Single parent families
Common-law couples who live together without being legally married
Families in which each marriage partner has a different religion or ethnicity ("mixed couples").
Families without a recognized religion or nationality, or with double religion or nationality
Moslem, Christian and Druze families
Single sex families
Families of foreign workers
All suffer from discrimination, lack of recognition of their family status and deprivation of basic rights.
New Family assists individuals in Israel to realize their basic right to establish a family, and to attain governmental recognition of their family status and rights.
What Are Our Goals?
New Family works for the recognition of the basic right to establish a family in Israel.
New Family believes that the family unit is the foundation for equality and social justice.
New Family works to advance the legislation of a Basic Family Law to recognize every variety of couple and single parent structure.
New Family works for gender equality.
New Family strives to protect every family member from physical and mental abuse and to ensure security and respect for each individual within the family.
New Family aims to ensure that the state and its institutions safeguard the well-being of individuals regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, age or nationality.
New Family works for the recognition of the family as an independent economic entity.
Who Are We?
The New Family Board of Directors is made up of prominent lawyers, psychologists, professionals and business people with a strong interest in the advancement of human rights.
Adv. Irit Rosenblum is the founder and chairperson of New Family. Irit has been active in the public arena since she began practicing law over a decade ago. Over the course of her career, she has stood out as an innovative young leader fighting for equality and social justice. The former Legal Advisor and Director of the Department of the Status of Women at WIZO Israel has worked on crucial issues such as violence in the family, problems of single parent families, the status of women in society and the plight of women denied divorce by their husbands. She led the campaign which brought about the establishment of a law requiring the rapid sentencing of offenders accused of violence against family members.
Irit was elected to the Local Council of Shoham and holds the education portfolio. She is a member of the Israeli Bar Association and a presiding judge in the police disciplinary court.
What Does New Family Do?
New Family focuses on three areas of activity:
Legislation - New Family initiates and works to legislate laws that advance the rights of all individuals in Israel to establish the family of their choice and maintain their family without discrimination or injury. We actively work for individual and family rights through Knesset committees:
The Committee for the Advancement of Women
The Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Children
The Special Committee for the Problems of Foreign Workers
The Constitution, Legislation and Trial Committee
Legal Counseling and Aid - New Family's expert lawyers provide legal advice on family matters to families and individuals, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender. Over 10,000 individuals and couples have turned to the New Family Legal Advice Center and Hotline since the center opened in 1999. On matters of legal principle or public significance, New Family initiates appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court or Family Court.
Information and Public Awareness - In 2000, New Family published the first Guide to Family Rights in Israel in Hebrew, which has become the standard reference guide for government offices, social welfare organizations, law firms, civil rights organizations, and private individuals. The Russian language version was published recently.
New Family initiated a public campaign to legalize civil marriage in Israel. We conducted a campaign to bring the plight of mixed Israeli-Palestinian couples into the public eye. In addition, New Family has organized educational projects, seminars, workshops and lectures for women, students, lawyers, professionals and others.
Visit Our Web-Site
http://www.newfamily.org.il/english.asp
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