Friday, May 10, 2013

ATOP Meaningful world organizes a Parallel Event for 57th CSW Transforming Violence against Women Around the World


During the past two weeks the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) held its 57th session at the United Nations, where a series of workshops, conferences and side events took place. Once again, The Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention (ATOP) Meaningful world organized a parallel event presenting a symposium on Empowering Women Around the Globe: Transforming Violence through Mind-Body-Eco-Spirit on 14 March, 2013 at the UN.

 The symposium opened with an awe-inspiring musical meditation, including an original piece by MAYA, with Sato Moughalian on flute and John Hadfield on percussion. The Book of Goddesses, by Robert Paterson and the Armenian Asparani Dance inspired celebration and unification through its melding of rhythm and melodies. It created a beautiful calming quality grounding the audience with a sense of peace and healing. Leysa Cerswell assisted in opening the conference by presenting ATOP Meaningful world’s empowering outreach in communities around the world in the last twenty-two years. She then introduced the Chairperson, Founder & CEO of ATOP Meaningful world, Dr. Kalayjian, who gave her passionate welcoming remarks and reinforced that men and women are like the two wings of a bird, and if these two wings don’t fly harmoniously the human race will never prosper. At the panel discussion, Dr. Kalayjian raised awareness on issues that women encounter every day and what steps to take to empower each other and ourselves using mind-body-eco-spirit health. One of the messages we were left with, which was also a part of the fabric of the conference, was “Now more than ever, the cause of women is the cause of mankind.” Female empowerment equals empowering the world, and we can do that by taking a stand to make a difference in our own life first, and then making a difference in someone else’s life.

The speech that impressed the audience most was given by Sarah Thontwa, graduate student at Columbia University, is currently completing her studies in Economics and highly involved in International Affairs. Thontwa, a native of Democratic Republic of the Congo, spoke of empowering women of Africa by identifying pressing issues of gender-based discrimination, property rights, labour rights, and civil liberties that are impacting the population. By showing slide presentation, she brought a poignant focus to poverty, the exploitation of women, and the manner in which they are being brainwashed by the cultural policies created by men. The overrepresentation of African women has evolved over time, with the average of women and girls with no access to education significantly higher than boys. She mentioned that in a population of over 70 million Congolese, 60% are women who live in the shadow of men with no entitlement to properties. They are punished for crimes they do not commit, while men receive honorable treatments, and also get discriminated at home and in the workplace. Thontwa advocated international pressure in seeking help to bring women’s issues to a bigger platform, with both macro and micro level policies to better the future for Congolese women. “Finding male allies to bring to the cause because there is a willingness in men to help with women empowerment” was a powerful concluding message that moved the audience in taking a similar stand as CEDAW ratification for the protection of women and girls around the globe.

Reporting back from the 57th UN CSW


I attended several sessions at the Church Center before the end of the second week. The last session I attended was sponsored by Lawyers without Borders. It was interactive and gave all of us present a chance to participate in the development of strategies to ensure appropriate law enforcement and police protection for victims of rape, sexual harassment and abuse.

Lawyers Without Borders is an international non-profit organization founded in 2000, which operates worldwide from its central headquarters located in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. It has only one affiliate: Lawyers Without Borders UK founded in 2003, headquartered in London, which acquired UK charity status in June 2010. Lawyers from around the world are engaged as volunteers either individually or through their employers (law firm and in-house corporate) who support LWOB as pro bono partners. To date, the countries which contribute the largest number of lawyer volunteers to LWOB field work are United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

The session was hosted by the LWOB CEO and Executive Director, Christina Storm (cstorm@lwob.org). Lined up behind Christina were four young women – all law students from Yale. The session was an exercise, using the book “What Would You Do…” The book was set up as a group exercise and was described as “become Maria as she reacts to her employer’s sexual advances at work in a small shop. This is an exercise designed to generate discussion about the workplace, sexual advances and assault and how culture, family, friends, NGOs, the police and court factor into gender violence.” The room was broken into groups to discuss various scenarios that Maria could face in such a situation (all described in the book and with assistance from the four Yale law students). The scenarios ranged from a negative scene whereby Maria showers and destroys evidence, another somewhat negative experience where Maria goes to the police and the courts for help, and a third positive scene where she receives good advice and a conviction for the perpetrator. Post breakouts, each group reported out on their talks. The game’s purpose was “to create a deeper understanding of the pressure Maria faces, her responses and the junctures in an imminent gender violence situation, where family, friends, courts and police can take action to affect the choices people and the impact of those actions and responses on the victim of a sexual assault.” In each scenario, no assault actually takes place, although clearly one is imminent, and how the power of early intervention may look differently in different cultures. Group readouts made it clear that there is no single best way to approach early intervention – a critical component in any sexual violent incident. Differences in countries and cultures are at play – sometimes family is the best help, sometimes police and/or the courts (certainly not always). We learned the importance of evidence gathering – strong verbal and written evidence is the best. We learned how a victim’s interaction with the police and the courts often happens and how having a witness or friend (family or otherwise) can be critical to a positive outcome. Another person can serve as a support system, a “validator of your credibility,” and a calm source for information gathering/sharing. A US doctor let participants know that it is IMPERATIVE that women in rape situations DEMAND a “rape kit” exam in any ER setting, although a New York attorney remarked that NYC is “thousands of kits behind” in processing. Another well received comment was that part of the problem are police forces that need a better gender balance.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

FIDA’s work on Ending Gender Based Violence in Kenya: Challenges and Prospects


On March 21, 2013, Gender minister Naomi Shaban addresses the sexual violence issues in Kenya at the Commission of Women at the UN Headquarters in New York. She states that lack of comprehensive data on the magnitude of sexual violence, traditional practices, poverty and limited resources stand in the way of ending violence against women (Onyango, 2013). Women need a host of support in Kenya. One NGO that is working towards their legal rights is FIDA. FIDA-Kenya is a women lawyers’ organization established in 1985 after the UN Third World Women Conference held in Nairobi. It is the oldest women rights organization in Eastern Africa and as such is a depository of the innovations and approaches applied by the women rights movements in the region for the last two decades. Internationally, FIDA-Kenya is recognized as a foremost African actor in the area of women empowerment. During CSW 57, Teresa Carlo Omondi, the Deputy Executive Director of FIDA, reports on FIDA’s work on ending gender based violence in Kenya. She addresses both challenges and prospects. She listed the key accomplishments of FIDA Kenya in the following areas1) In 2005 FIDA Kenya spearheaded the establishment of the Family Division of the High Court. 2) FIDA Kenya was instrumental in the establishment of the National Commission on Gender and Development. 3)FIDA Kenya was involved in the development and drafting of various gender friendly laws and policies such as: The Children’s Act 2001,Sexual Offences Act 2006, Employment Act Trafficking Bill, Gender and Development Policy, The Land Policy. 4) FIDA Kenya has been identified as a model organization in the provision of legal aid and is therefore a pilot site for the Kenya National Legal Aid and Awareness Program (NALEAP). She also presented the major challenges faced by Kenyan women while seeking leadership positions. For example, there is a definite issue with the birth and/ or marital status of women and the decision to elect a woman or not. Because the political parties are male-dominated, and cost of running for elections is a burden for women. Moreover, one cannot ignore the pre and post-election violence. She pointed out that cultural traditions including social norms do not identify women as leaders. At the end she was very positive on the way to promote women’s leadership position, such as FIDA enforcement of the constitutional 2/3 gender principle. FIDA has been working closely with men on the importance of women leadership through civic education, and trying to create awareness on punitive cultural practices.
During post-panel discussion, the opportunity to ask one of the panelists Sally Muhio specifically about the “informal justice system” in Kenya, presented an interesting response. The Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA Kenya) is committed to bridge the gap between the Government and the citizenry, and in particular, the disadvantaged women (FIDAKENYA, 2013). While engaging with the Formal Justice System, FIDA Kenya has strategically put in place mechanisms to connect with indigent women at the community level. She said in most of the local communities, informal justice systems are more vibrant. For example, there is an organization called the “council for adults” where FIDA Kenya assists women to access justice through the existing channels by training the respective bodies on gender to gender related issues. This organization ensures the voices of the victims be heard before moving onto “formal” court. Furthermore, another transformative innovation that this informal justice system brings is to re-direct deserving cases to the mediation system. Unlike the formal legal system, this will access justice to the indigent woman with less social, emotional and monetary costs.  Muhio also mentioned a FIDA established Policy Walk Group that is to train and work with local police to handle victims of sexual violence.
In a second interview with Josephine Wambua-Mong , a Council member of FIDA ,she explains  how to spread legal knowledge and practice to the public. She mentioned LEGAL AWARENESS WEEK event FIDA conducted in 2012.  The objective of Legal Awareness Week is to promote the mandate of the Law Society of Kenya by extending legal literacy and awareness to members of the public. The public would also be advised on various aspects of the Law and Civic Education.  The Law Society of Kenya Branches shall also observe and coordinate their activities at branch level.

When asked what type of medical services FIDA provided to the victims of sexual violence in Kenya, Wambua-Mong said FIDA itself doesn't provide such medical services. However there are Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) services available in major hospitals in Kenya. The abbreviation PEP stands for a number of things in medicine including post-exposure prophylaxis. Unfortunately not all expenses are covered by the medical centers or hospitals. Like Dr. Omondi, another member of the panel, summarized, “Medication is the key solution we provided to the victims, no matter what kind of justice system they go through, and they have to be cured, to become sound human beings again”. One major concern is the lack of awareness of the importance of PEP and its procedures.