Monday 10 October 2005

Bid to curb rights violation

VILLAGE courts in the country will soon have women magistrates to help address the violation of women’s and children’s rights.
This is part of changes in the village court system being implemented by the government.
This was highlighted during the human rights and HIV/AIDS training workshop for provincial village court officers at the Coast Watchers Hotel in Madang last Thursday.
Deputy director for village court secretariat John Takuna said women and children have been denied the rights of fair court representation by men dominated court hearings.
He said that for too long women and children have been victims of unfair court decisions based on customary values when involving violence against them.
He said the inclusion of woman magistrates could change the perception and also empower women to solve conflicts equally as men.
Mr Takuna said that as part of the program of promotion of human rights, the village court officers would undertake a week-long human rights training so that they were acquainted with basic information to advise and train the village court officials in their provinces.
He said the low appreciation of the rights of women and children at the village courts would be reduced and they would be encouraged to access this level of court.
A provincial village court official from Southern Highlands, Paul Wisup, said the training was helpful for them and also for the village court officials.
Mr Wisup said women were taken as low class citizens and cannot do men’s jobs but there were women who can prove the mentality was wrong if given the mandate.
Secretariat adviser Justin Rogers said that a report by the Justice Advisory group had identified that the village courts system in the country had not worked effectively.
He said the group had identified that there have poor administration and lack of financial support in each province.
“Therefore, the secretariat has developed strategies to improve management and administration village courts firstly with the communication system by establishing a database,” Mr Rogers said.
He said reporting system was an integral part of any organisation where information was disseminated to stakeholders like the secretariat, the provincial administration and the local level government in a province.
Mr Rogers said in order to do that, the village court officers will compile and submit information such as monthly returns, quarterly reports, annual reports, inspection training and an updated list of village court officials for the data.
He said that as part of the improvement exercise, 10 provinces have been provided with vehicles, boats and information technology equipment to assist them with the inspections and training while others provinces would receive them shortly.