The Independent Commission for Human Rights 2. Recommendations a. The legislative authority should reconsider the crimes related to sexual assaults in the family in compliance with the basic principles of human rights to achieve the functions for which laws are generally enacted, and in particular establish penal laws to guarantee equality between men and women, achieve justice, and encourage deterrence in order to bring such assaults to a halt. b. Legal provisions regarding incest should be amended as follows: - c. an amendment to the physical element of the act of incest to consider any act or conduct implying sexual activity in the family an act of incest. - an amendment of the mental element of the act of incest, nullifying the consent and free will of women with regard to the act of incest in consideration of patriarchal domination over the life of women. - the need to consider the crime of incest as a crime committed by two parties of unfair and unequal relationship, where one party is the “offender” and the second party is the woman as the “victim”. - the need to consider the crime of incest as a felony and make the punishment against perpetrators harsher. - the need to grant women the right to file complaints about sexual assaults, especially incest, and at all stages of life. - the need to sufficiently punish the principal, abettor, accessory and accomplice to the crime of incest. - the need to repeal the right to drop a lawsuit by forgoing the personal right of the complainant. The institutions of the PNA should consider creating a national action plan to promote the protection of women against all forms of violence. It should also list provisions in these plans activities and programs for this purpose and fully draft a preventive platform with all legal, political, administrative and cultural measures that promote the protection of women against all forms of violence and guarantee that women shall not be re-victimized due to laws, practices and other forms of intervention which do not take gender into consideration. d. Adopt all appropriate measures, especially in the area of education, to modify the patterns of social and cultural conduct of men and women, and to eliminate prejudice, customary practices and all other practices that are based on the inferiority or superiority of either sex as well as stereotypes about the roles of men and women. e. 48 Creation and promotion of institutional mechanisms enabling women and girls to notify the relevant authorities about acts of violence committed against them, to file complaints thereof in a secure and covert atmosphere free from the fear of facing punishment or vengeance, and to ensure access for women with disabilities to the information and services related to violence against women.