Laws improve women’s status

By Mary Rauto

Fiji Times Online 22/07/2011

 

LAWS can change society and justice systems can provide the means for women to demand accountability – to put a stop to violence in their relationships, to claim citizenship rights, to get married and divorced on equal terms to men or to claim land, inheritance or pay to which they are entitled.

Those were the words of United Nations Women Assistant Secretary-General John Hendra as he launched the Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012 report.

These laws and justice systems will put a stop to violence in relationships, to claim citizenship rights, to get married and divorced on equal terms to men or to claim land, inheritance or pay to which women are entitled.

“In fact, courts have been the site of some incredible groundbreaking legal decisions, many of which we highlight in the report,” he said.

“Women all over the world have used the courts to get justice, winning decisions that benefit not only themselves, but expand access to justice for millions of other women.”

Mr Hendra said by April this year, 52 States had explicitly outlawed marital rape in their criminal codes.

“In fact, in Asia-Pacific and beyond, there have been several significant transformations in legal frameworks,” he said.

“In our comprehensive review of legislation, we found that two thirds of countries globally now have laws against domestic violence, which is an extraordinary shift even from 10 years ago.

“Fifteen countries in East Asia and the Pacific now have domestic violence laws and six countries have taken the important step of explicitly outlawing rape within marriage.

“This shift is important not only because of the protection it affords women, but also because it signals a willingness on the part of governments to regulate the private, as well as the public domain”

 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2011 at 9:33 am by and is filed under News.