If law and law reform are going to be part of the battle against domestic violence then we need to engage with judges, the police and prosecutors. Law reform is not an end in itself but only part of the larger process.
It would be good to hear experiences of how women have been engaging judges, the police and prosecutors. In Sri Lanka our experiences in engaging the judiciary on issues of violence have been disappointing. Sri Lankan judges are willing to engage on a number of other legal and human rights issues, but you run against a wall when you begin to talk gender equality and women's rights. However, I do know that some of the other South Asian countries have had better experiences in judicial education and this is reflected in some of their judgements. We may also want to think about which parts of the judiciary we target. Most judicial education programs are aimed at the higher judiciary but if we are talking about domestic violence then we would also need to look at lower court judges. Mario Gomez Fellow Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Harvard University Member, Law Commission of Sri Lanka ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
