Concept Note
DOES LAW MATTER?
ASSESSING 20 YEARS OF ACCESSING JUSTICE FOR WOMEN

Background  

The networks of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), Women in Law and Development, Africa (WILDAF) and Women, Law and Development International began at the 1985 Third World Forum on Women, Law and Development organised by the UN in Nairobi, Kenya.  Within two to three years shortly after that Forum, APWLD, WILDAF and CLADEM were established in the as women, law and development networks in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America respectively.

The women that participated in the dialogues recognised that while law is used as an instrument of state control over resources, rights, and even women’s bodies, it could also be used to effect socio-political changes toward the realisation of women’s rights. So with a mission to harness law as a tool for women’s empowerment, the women, law, and development networks were established in North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa within two to three years shortly after the Forum.  

For the past 20 years, these networks have focused on promoting women’s human rights as an analytical and strategic framework of engaging with the legal system to empower women.

• They have engaged in policy advocacy, education, training and other activities to address issues and concerns of marginalized women.
  
  
• They have lobbied at regional and international levels for the implementation of government commitments on women’s human rights and the integration of women’s concerns at regional and international development initiatives.
  
  
• They have developed extensive partnership with women’s groups, human rights groups and other movements to expand and strengthen networks working on the promotion of women’s rights

To date, the networks have expanded tremendously with APWLD now having close to 150 members in 23 countries in Asia (Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia ) and Pacific (Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Cook Islands).  CLADEM works in about 20 countries in Latin America with regional offices in Argentina and Lima, Peru.  WILDAF was able to establish membership in 31 countries in Africa, with the Regional Secretariat based in Harare, Zimbabwe and one sub-regional office in Togo. 

During the Commission of Women (CSW) sessions in New York and in other international meetings since 2004, there were initial discussions between Virada Somswasdi and Mary Jane N.  Real, APWLD and Susanna Chairotti of CLADEM regarding plans to mark the 20th anniversary of the women, law and development networks.  In February 2006, the APWLD Regional Council agreed to commemorate APWLD’s 20th anniversary from February 2006-March 2007. Subsequently, the plans were expanded to include marking the 20th anniversary of all the networks on women, law and development and WILDAF and CLADEM will be invited to participate in the activities.

Objectives

The objectives of these 20th Anniversary events are:

• To take stock of the key achievements and challenges in accessing justice for women in the past 20 years through exchange of information, experiences, and expertise
  
  
• To assess the international human rights institutions/mechanisms and impact current reforms will have on women human rights
  
  
• To assess the frameworks and strategies used by the women, law and development networks in the implementation, promotion and protection of women’s political, economic, social, and cultural rights and women’s empowerment;

• To assess, consolidate and strengthen partnerships, networks on women’s human rights and contribute towards strengthening the women’s movement; 

• To participate in activities to mark the International Women Human Rights Defenders day on 29 November, assess the latest developments on this initiative and explore participation and support for on-going work .

Based on the initial thoughts of founding members such as Hina Jilani, Nimalka Fernando, Susanna Chiarotti, the following key questions are proposed:

• What have been the achievements of WLD networks in using law for women's development and empowerment in particular, and to bring justice for women in general in that last 20 years? 
• What are the challenges of using law as a strategy to bring justice for women in the context of the current politics of war against terror, militarism, fundamentalisms, and globalisation? 
• As advocacy networks created after the UN Forum on Women, Law and Development, what were the gains in the advocacy for women’s rights at the UN and other arenas?  
• What should be the collective strategic directions of the WLD networks in the future?
• How can the WLD networks contribute towards sustaining activism for women’s human rights and strengthening the women’s movement, including young women feminists?

To celebrate 20 years of promoting women human rights, APWLD, WILDAF and CLADEM will plan to undertake the following activities:

• An international roundtable discussion among APWLD, WILDAF and CLADEM members to undertake a reflective evaluation of the frameworks and strategies used by the networks in the past 20 years to access justice for women;
• An intergeneration, inter-regional dialogue on the future women, law and development networks;
• A public event to mark the International Women Human Rights Defenders day on November 29.

About 50-80 participants are expected to be invited in these events.  They consist of:

• Founders of APWLD, CLADEM and WILDAF that have continued to be active in the women’s movements;
• Current members of APWLD, CLADEM and WILDAF;
• Key women’s human rights organisations in various countries that can be potential members of WLD networks;
• Key women activists (in UN, governments, civil society groups or other organisations) known for their significant contributions to the advancement of women’s human rights.

Venue and Dates

The dates of the 20th anniversary celebration have been set on 29-30 November 2007.

Due to budgetary constraints and its relative accessibility, the venue has been fixed in Bangkok, Thailand.

Outputs

The expected outputs of these events are:

• Proceedings of the international roundtable discussion;
• Publication of a collection of papers assessing the frameworks and strategies used by women, law and development networks in accessing justice for the last 20 years;
• A collective articulation of the strategic directions of WLD networks for the next 10 years. 

Working Group

The main responsibilities of the 20th anniversary working group are: 

• Consolidate funding and budget to carry out the 20th anniversary activities;
• Draft the programmes for the activities;
• Develop a list of participants and invitees, including speakers and facilitators for the activities.

The 20th anniversary coordinator and programme associate will take the lead in planning and implementing the activities, in coordination with the members of the working group. 

Each of the networks (APWLD, CLADEM and WILDAF) will produce a reflection paper on their use of law as a tool to bring women’s justice for the last 20 years. These papers will become three of the commissioned papers for the anniversary publication.  Each network will constitute its own working group and working methods to produce the paper.  The production of these reflection papers will be the primary responsibility of each of the network.