Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
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ather than prosecution of offenders, stipulate forgiveness<br />
clauses, or omit certain perpetrators should be repealed.<br />
Review harmful customary practices. Use constitutional<br />
means with primacy to formal laws where possible to<br />
address harmful customs. Specific laws can also be made<br />
to eliminate practices that curtail women’s freedoms <strong>and</strong><br />
opportunities in the region.<br />
Uphold equality within personal laws. Go beyond the<br />
public sphere to review gender-inequitable personal laws<br />
that influence rights <strong>and</strong> duties of women in domestic<br />
sphere. Narrowly defined gender roles within marriage,<br />
limited maintenance rights, unequal access to marital<br />
property <strong>and</strong> unjust inheritance practices need to be<br />
prioritised.<br />
Strengthen enforcement mechanisms. Ensure dedicated<br />
personnel capacity where possible, including a larger<br />
share of female personnel, <strong>and</strong> organize obligatory gender<br />
training for all law enforcement agents – judges, lawyers,<br />
magistrates, mediators dispensing justice at community<br />
levels, <strong>and</strong> police officials. This requires adequate human<br />
<strong>and</strong> financial resources. Do not take the ability for genderanalysis<br />
for granted. With training, both men <strong>and</strong> women<br />
officials can be change agents for gender equality.<br />
6.2 Change attitudes<br />
Countering pre-conceived notions on gender stereotypes<br />
is critical, especially in patriarchal societies. New ways<br />
of thinking that give legitimacy <strong>and</strong> acceptance to the<br />
equal value <strong>and</strong> dignity of all human beings needs<br />
to be promoted. Well-designed advocacy <strong>and</strong> social<br />
mobilization campaigns can raise public awareness <strong>and</strong><br />
get people to recognize the value of thinking in new ways.<br />
Entry points that can be leveraged are inside judicial<br />
systems, across the political spectrum, <strong>and</strong> in society.<br />
Inside the judicial systems. Pre-service legal education with<br />
required gender sensitization can be supplemented by<br />
in-service gender-training of law enforcement officers<br />
– police, judges <strong>and</strong> others. Focus on legal inequalities<br />
that disadvantage women, a better underst<strong>and</strong>ing of<br />
legal neutrality <strong>and</strong> equality, <strong>and</strong> the potential for a<br />
6. Redressing Gender Barriers: <strong>Enforcing</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> And <strong>Correcting</strong> <strong>Wrongs</strong><br />
strongly positive role of judicial interpretation can make<br />
a difference.<br />
Across the political spectrum. The legislature has a role<br />
through drafting <strong>and</strong> passage of laws. Political leaders<br />
make police, magisterial <strong>and</strong> judicial appointments <strong>and</strong><br />
also allocate budgets to courts, prisons, police <strong>and</strong> legal<br />
aid initiatives to assist the poor. Being responsive to voter<br />
from constituencies can also pay political dividends. These<br />
can be useful entry points.<br />
In society. Social mobilization has been used to serve<br />
several aims. It can be used to create <strong>and</strong> reinforce ideas<br />
of equality <strong>and</strong> to persuade people of ways it can enrich<br />
quality of lives. Educate people through campaigns on<br />
legal facts <strong>and</strong> provide guidance on better using legal<br />
institutions. Places where social norms are consolidated<br />
<strong>and</strong> transmitted such as schools, the media, religious<br />
organizations <strong>and</strong> community groups make key entry<br />
points.<br />
6.3 Establish ongoing assessments<br />
Ongoing reviews of laws <strong>and</strong> institutions of justice should<br />
be put in place to ensure systematic assessments aimed at<br />
revealing inequalities as well as other limitations. These<br />
assessments can feed into efforts to close gender disparities.<br />
International legal instruments on gender equality <strong>and</strong><br />
national legal reforms are useful assessment tools.<br />
International legal instruments. International instruments<br />
such as CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration <strong>and</strong> Platform for<br />
Action, the ILO’s Migrant Workers Convention, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
UN MDGs are useful global norms on gender equality.<br />
Countries can <strong>and</strong> have used CEDAW to reform their<br />
civil <strong>and</strong> criminal laws. The effectiveness of legislative <strong>and</strong><br />
judicial reforms at the national level can benefit from<br />
international st<strong>and</strong>ards.<br />
National reforms. Not just legislative change, but<br />
progressive judicial precedents too can be useful<br />
correctives in support of historically disadvantaged<br />
groups. Judicial precedents can take much less time–one<br />
has only to convince the judge, as against the much longer<br />
<strong>and</strong> less certain process of legislative change.<br />
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