ICAAD Conducts Workshop for Lawyers from 12 Pacific Island Countries at Gender and the Law Conference in Fiji

ICAAD and our pro bono counsel, DLA Piper Australia, attended the regional consultation from Nov. 17-21st and delivered a presentation and workshop on Nov. 20th. Being a part of this Consultation gave us the opportunity to engage individuals working within different sectors of society who have the ability to work towards effective implementation of human rights within their respective countries. Securing multi-sectoral participation to assure awareness and impact on gender based violence was a predominant theme throughout the week-long event.

As part of our Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action, the workshop focused on the role of cultural norms and gender stereotypes leading to low sentencing decisions in sexual assault and domestic violence cases. Hansdeep Singh ofICAAD, and Emily Christie of DLA Piper presented data on case law analysis of approximately 1,000 cases covering 10 Pacific Island Countries (PICs).

 

Following the presentation, we ran a comprehensive workshop that placed lawyers in the decision making role of the judge, and asked each country group to apply an analysis to sexual and domestic violence cases based on experiences from their respective jurisdictions.

Additionally, the attendees adopted an Outcomes Document (organized by a Working Group) that referenced two topics that ICAAD raised during the Consultation, sentencing and pro bono:

• “We note that while there is new legislation on family and sexual violence, generally sentencing for domestic violence offences are too low to act as deterrents for perpetrators.”
• “Further, we call upon members of the legal profession to develop pro-bono assistance . . . [for] survivors of VAWG as a form of mitigating the barriers of accessing legal services which makes access to justice difficult for most women.”

We would like to thank our hosts, RRRT and FWRM for inviting us to attend an expertly conducted Consultation. Also, we want to acknowledge all the participants from around the region who were extremely engaged and who we learned a lot from.

 

Our team looks forward to continued engagement with RRRT and FWRM as they work to promote the advancement of women’s rights in Fiji and the Pacific region. Moreover, we hope to assist participants back in their home countries as they implement what they learned during the Consultation.