'Only legal empowerment will end violence against women'

High Court judge, Joaquine Demello

Legal empowerment is a practical instrument that could halt massive discrimination and violence against women and girls in Tanzania. 

“Communities must be empowered if we really want to rescue women and girls from massive human rights violation, which mostly target these vulnerable social creatures,” said High Court judge, Joaquine Demello, at a forum of legal aid organisations from across Tanzania which are funded by the Legal Services Facility (LSF), a donor-financed legal mechanism established in 2011 to support organisations involved in legal aid services countrywide.
Demello said violence against women and girls in Tanzania has reached a crisis level.

“Incidents of child rape, sexual abuse for girls and women in work places, wife-beating, escalated killings of women on witchcraft suspicious, are increasingly becoming common phenomenal in Tanzania,” said Demello who doubles as LSF Board Chairperson.

“Studies show that where the ‘gender gap’ is greater in the status of women’s health, participation in the economy, education levels and representation in politics, women are more likely to be subjected to violence,” observed Demello.
Legal empowerment, she said, is the best approach that could end discrimination and other forms of violence to which women and girls are subjected.

She said due to persistence violence against women in the country, LSF incorporated women rights protection in its approach.
“LSF took legal empowerment approach in which paralegals are being engaged in empowering the community to deal with their own justice problems and protect women’s rights,” she noted.

Through legal empowerment, she said, LSF insists on having local mechanisms in place for protection of women’s rights, pointing out that, legal rights can be combined with other local economic activities like Village Community Banks (VICOBA) and other income generating activities, thus assist women to be independent.

She said to strengthen its legal empowerment approach in the context of protecting women rights, LSF supported 3 strategic litigations focusing on constitutionality of applicability of customary law inheritance, school pregnancy and equal division of matrimonial property.  
Welcoming the chief guest, LSF Fund Manager, Kees Groenendijk said application of legal empowerment strategy has registered impressive results, as it assisted many women in the country to access justice. 
“There are a lot of successful stories of women and girls who accessed their rights in divorce, matrimonial and inheritance cases through legal empowerment,” said LSF fund manager. 
“Legal empowerment will remain a central component in the LSF operations for years to come,” said Groenendijk.

Since its establishment in September 2011, the LSF committed a total of 17bn/- as grants to 51 legal aid organisations involved in the implementation of paralegal and related projects countrywide. 

Through LSF funding, the respective legal aid organisations are currently training 25 paralegals for 5 weeks hence by the end of 2014 Tanzania will have a total of 4,000 paralegals providing legal assistance to the needy. All 158 districts in the country are expected to have paralegals.