Dear members, Women's groups in Sri Lanka together with other concerned groups and individuals proposed the enactment of separate legislation to deal with domestic violence and introduced a draft for public discussion in early 2000.
The draft incorporated elements from similar legislation available internationally especially South Africa and Malaysia and the Lawyers Collective Bill from India. It was also based on the framework for domestic violence legislation proposed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women - Radhika Coomaraswamy. The draft went through many rounds of discussions and amendments with the participation of women's groups working at community level, human rights activists, lawyers, doctors, medical professionals, the media, etc. and other concerned individuals. Over the two years, it was also considered by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Justice has just unveiled its proposed draft Act which provides specifically for the 'making of protection orders in instances of domestic violence and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto'. This (MoJ Draft) incorporates many of the elements in the women's draft, deletes some and adds others. We attach a copy each of both the MoJ draft and the Women's Draft and would very much welcome your comments on the MoJ draft with suggestion on how best this can be strengthened and what strategies may work to mobilize such support. We need to keep in all the positive elements of the MoJ draft while we attempt to strengthen it in a realistic manner. [***Moderators' note: The two drafts can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/Sri-Lanka-DV-bill.html The files are in PDF format. If you would like to receive a copy in Word, please send an e-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with in the subject line: Sri Lanka DV drafts bills***] We need to move quickly and would therefore be grateful for any suggestions! Thank you. Kumi Samuel on behalf of the Women and Media Collective and the other groups that initiated the 'Women's Draft' E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***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/
