Does Law Matter 20 Years of Accessing Justice for Women

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Does Law Matter?20 Years of Accessing Justice
for Women
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Where did we come from?

• UN World Conference on the Decade for Women
  Equality Development and Peace
• Nairobi, Kenya (1985)

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• 1986 - APWLD, following the Third World
  Conference in 1985
• on Women
• 1987 - CLADEM
• 1990 - WILDAF at the Women, Law and Development
  Conference in Africa

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Justice for women

• - Equality
• - Development
• - Peace

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What did we achieve as a movement ?

• 20

• GAINS
• YEARS

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1. New norms and standards for womens rights

• Womens rights as human rights
• Violence against women as a human rights
  violation
• Principle of Equality and Non-Discrimination
• Rape and sexual violence as war crimes and crimes
  against humanity

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2. Constitutional and other legislative reform
on (de jure) gender equality

• inclusion of gender provisions in national
  constitutions
• enactment of gender-specific legislations
• reform of criminal codes and family laws
• Regulations affirmative action for womens
  political participation

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3. Claimed new rights for women

• inheritance rights
• Equal employment rights
• Reproductive health and rights
• Sexual rights

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4. New instruments and mechanisms to enforce
womens human rights

• UN Special Rapporteur on VAW (1993)
• Beijing Platform for Action (1995)
• CEDAW Optional Protocol (2000)
• International Criminal Court (2002)
• Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003)
• Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and
  Eradicate Violence against Women (2004)

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5. New forms of accountability

• Beyond punishment, to include protection and
  prevention
• Concept of due diligence
• Reparation
• Reconciliation
• Healing.

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6. Legal precedents and reforms in legal
procedures

• Unity Dow v. the Atty. General on citizenship
  (Bostwana, 1990)
• Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan on sexual
  harassment (India,1994)
• Protection orders for victims of VAW
• Testimonies by video tapes for victims of sexual
  violence
• Reparations trust fund for victims

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7. Pushed the public/private divide

• Rape as a public crime
• Honour killings
• Female genital mutilation (FGM)
• Women as political actors
• Women in the workplace

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8. Mainstreaming of gender

• Integrating gender in the planning,
  implementation, assessment of programs
• Setting up of women ministries, bureaus and
  desks
• Gender capacity-building and training
• Gender budgets.

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9. New perspectives and analytical lenses

• WID/WAD/GAD
• Gender analysis
• Intersectionality approach
• Feminist critique of the law

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10. Women and gender in the academe

• Creation of women studies centers
• Graduate programs for women/women in development
• Proliferation of feminist writings in academic
  journals
• Intellectual leadership from feminists

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11. Integration of a rights-based approach to
development

• Realisation of womens rights as integral to
  development
• Gender-sensitive indicators on development
  (e.g., HRD gender-related development index)
• Advocacy on economic, social, cultural rights
• Integrating gender in MDGs

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12. Basic services as entitlements for women

• Literacy and education
• Health care
• food
• Water
• housing

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13. Womens access to economic resources

• Income-generating projects
• Micro-credit/finance
• Employment as a right
• Land ownership

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14. Increase in womens political participation

• Women in positions of power
• Women in governments
• Women parties
• Womens vote
• Quotas for women
• Women leaders.

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15. Challenged cultures

• Cultural dimension of the law
• Naming violations of womens rights in the name
  of upholding culture and traditions
• Questioning customary laws and practices

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16. Recognition of womens roles in
peace-building

• UN Security Council Resolution 1325
• Participation of women in peace negotiations
• Womens rehabilitation work post-conflict
• Active advocacy on transitional justice.

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17. Influenced other movements

• Womens movements within other movements
  (peasants, IPs, etc.)
• Womens units in organisations
• Solidarity for womens issues from other groups
• Collaborations

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18. Made new advocates of womens rights

• Male colleagues
• Other social activists
• Policy-makers
• Donors

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19. At the forefront in the struggles for the
environment

• Vhandana Shivas eco-feminism
• Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2004 Wangari
  Maathai and the Green Belt Movement
• Women and mining

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20. Remains a relevant, vibrant movement

• Young women in the movement
• Women from different sectors (recognition of
  rights of different groups of women (HIV Aids,
  Migrants)
• Strategies for sustaining activism

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Session 1 Reflections on our networks

• What are our networks achievements?
• What remains valuable in our work?
• What are the lessons learned?
• How can we sustain ourselves in the future?

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Session 2 Critical Perspectives on the Use of
Law

• law as an instrument
• of social change

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Strategies

• Litigation and legal aid
• Legal literacy training and capacity-building
• Legislative reform
• Legal/action-oriented research
• Awareness-raising
• Social mobilisation and organising
• Campaigns

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Session 2

• What strategies worked?
• What strategies didnt worked? Why?
• How have these strategies attained justice for
  women?

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Law reform, reform the state

• Which state?
• Meaning, "only of the possible within the
  state?
• Have we become too comfortable with the state?

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Session 3 Challenges in Accessing Justice for
Women

• What are the critical issues affecting women?
• Is law a useful tool to address these issues?

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External Challenges

• Militarisation/militarism
• -war against terror
• -violence to resolve disputes
• -intensified conflicts
• -military over civilian rule

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• Fundamentalisms
• a political project to obtain and retain power.
  It plays on identity-politics and chooses aspects
  of culture and religion to create a single,
  collective identity that is pure, valid or
  authentic achieved through the control over
  womens sexuality.

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• Neoliberal Globalisation
• the privatisation of public goods, de-regulation
  of trade and finance and liberalisation of
  national economies
• It globalised the market, and the only thing it
  circulates freely is capital

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Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005)

• Ownership governments to own development
  projects
• Alignment Country Policy Institutional
  Assessment (CPIA), a one-size fits all assessment
  of aid capability of each country based on trade
  and fiscal policies

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• 3. Harmonisation between OECD and IFIs
• 4. Managing for results donors and governments
  as partners on achieving development goals
• 5. Mutual accountability between donors and
  recepients

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Governments have not mainstreamed gender in
policies
Womens political Participation not of a policy
calibre
neo-liberal gender agenda
Government gender initiatives are donor
dependent
Less flexibility for womens programs
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• Poverty
• Progress is small and not noticeable enough to
  break poverty cycle
• -Cambodian research on womens
  empowerment (2005)

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• Impunity
• Governments use the law to
• legitimize illegal acts.
• de facto equality remains elusive for many

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Does law still matter?
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Internal Challenges

• - Sustainability
• - Institutions
• - Professionalisation
• Depolitisation?
• Which of the issues remain part of our personal
  politics, which are just projects to complete?

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• - Exhaustion
• - Burn out
• Well-being?

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• Leadership transition (Session 4)
• Roles and responsibilities
• for the young and old

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• Representation anxieties
• Who owns the authentic voice?!?
• -north v. south?
• -sectoral womens voices?
• -womens movement s?

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• Flying off the edge of a cliff
• reaching a plateau?

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• VISIONS
• HOPE

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• VISIONS
• HOPE