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The World Courts of Women

© Moira Richards

Women, the world over, are mobilising to work against the many forms of women abuse that are prevalent in society. One such initiative is the Asian Women's Human Rights Council's (AWHRC) program of Courts of Women.

The idea of these courts is that a jury of Wise Women presides over public hearings. Women are encouraged to testify at the hearings, to relate their personal experience of women abuse - how they suffer abuse, how they survive abuse, what they are doing to resist abuse.

It gives women a forum in which they will be heard, not ignored, where they can share their experience and knowledge and learn from that of other women. The courts are public fora from which governments and the national and international public can learn much about what is being done to women, often in the name of custom, culture and even, progress!

A number of courts have been held around the world in the last decade, each usually focusing on a specific group of women or type of women abuse. A court was held in Japan in 1994, and it focussed on 'Trafficking in Asian Women' .

Later that year, a Court of Women in Egypt heard of 'Crimes Against Women Related to Population Policies', and included reproductive rights and genetic engineering.

Another court in India in 1995 listened to testimony of 'Crimes Against Women Related to the Violence of Development'.

Other Courts of Women have sat on issues such as family laws in the Arab world and the feminisation of poverty in African countries.

Courts planned for 2001 and 2002 include an Asian-Arabian Court on 'Honour Crimes', a Central American Court on the 'Violence of the Economic Blockade of Cuba', and an African Court on 'Racism, the Holocaust and Apartheid'. March 6 - 9, 2001 sees the 'World Court of Women against War, for Peace' being held in Cape Town, South Africa.

It will look at the wars of the last century, against women - wars not only of armed conflict, but wars of racism, poverty and globalisation. It will try to understand these abuses of women and look at what work women are doing to bring about peace. It will culminate in the creation of a World Women's Commission on Human Rights, based on the conviction that conventional covenants of human rights are often blind to women.

The copyright of the article The World Courts of Women in Abuse Against Women is owned by Teresa Brouwer. Permission to republish The World Courts of Women in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.