It was a great privilege to organize this initial meeting on the second day (26th November 2020) of 16 days Activism against Gender Based Violence via zoom meeting. A very harsh reality at this point of time “Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. Globally, it is estimated that one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime.”
CWAD organized this initial meeting with CSOs and Concerned Stakeholders to aware that we are working on reviewing the Legal Aid Act, National Civil Code, and National Criminal Code from GESI perspective. The main objective of this meeting was to aware, strengthen existing mechanisms and increase public participation in policy making process which would help raise voice and policies against violence against women. Similarly, we wanted to see if the consultants and we are going on the same path for the preparation of “Teen Mahale” and Review Report. We also took this moment to celebrate the 16 days activism via Zoom meeting and asked the CSOs who were working for empowerment of women and girls in different level to join us on the initiative and provide their valuable time and inputs/suggestions as a champion of change in future.
The program carried forward on with the presentation and discuss on the “Teen Mahele” of Legal Aid Act, National Civil Code and National Criminal Code by Advocate Ajay Shankar Jha “Rupesh”, Advocate Indu Tuladhar and Advocate Sabin Shrestha, respectively. They highlighted the ensuring access to justice of women, children and disadvantage group of people and victim/ survivors who are unable to access formal justice system, highlighted the breaches on the provision of marriage, divorce, guardianship, and succession which is unclear and complex regarding providing justice to women and gaps and lacuna and suggested to amendment those provision on the Lens of gender justice during their review.
This initial meeting helped explore various facts and provisions which heated up the discussion on almost all the legal provision of Civil Code, Criminal Code and Legal Aid Act. The concerned stakeholders attended the meeting were readily available to work hand in hand to on preparation process and submit the “Teen Mahale” for the amendment of those biased laws and discriminatory provisions with gender perspective and access to justice