WAO ANNUAL REPORT 2009 - Women's Aid Organisation

The training for the Gender Focal points at Genting was particularly interesting as we were able
to present the Concluding Comments, i.e. recommendations from the Committee in 2006 and
assigned the working groups in the training to design action plans for implementation. To date
none of the recommendations have been implemented.
7.2 Reform of the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) 1994.
As advised by the AGM in 2008, WAO focused on documenting and lobbying for reform. We
produced a report with 34 cases and a list of remaining challenges on policy and protocols to the
DVA.
On the run up to the roundtable discussions on the DVA, we had two meetings with Welfare
department. At that meeting, the Department brought together welfare officers from all over
Malaysia for a one to one meeting with WAO. The welfare officers shared similar challenges
faced by their offices when they went about getting Interim Protection Orders (IPOS) for their
various clients.
7.2.1 DVA 1994 National Roundtable Discussion with NGOs and Welfare
Department
In 2009, with funds from Asia Foundation, WAO organised its National Roundtable Discussion on
the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act titled ‘Upholding the Rights of Women
Seeking Protection from Domestic Violence’.
The purpose of the National Roundtable Discussion was to bring together service providers
beyond the Klang Valley to document their experiences on the use of DVA, in order to gather
information on how victim-survivors of domestic violence get protection through the DVA.
WAO documented and compiled 34 cases from January to June 2009, which was then used to
identify the existing challenges faced by women when seeking protection under the DVA 1994.
These findings were then shared with participants at the National Roundtable Discussion which
was held on 22 July 2009, at Shah’s Village Hotel, Petaling Jaya. The event was attended by
service providers from 11 States who also shared their experiences with us. Service providers
included NGOs, shelter homes, welfare departments, community organisations and lawyers.
During the course of the Roundtable Discussion participants were given information on the
background and history of the DVA 1994 and WAOs key role in lobbying for reform of the Act. It
was also a privilege to have Malathi Dass, lawyer and member of AWARE, Singapore (an NGO) to
share the Singapore experience with us and a local Criminal Lawyer, Datuk Baljit Singh to give us
a criminal lawyer’s point of view on the recent proposed amendments made to the DVA 1994 in
2007.
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