Women in Law in Southern Africa – Research and Education Trust (WLSA)

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Women in Law in Southern Africa – Research and Education Trust (WLSA)
WLSA Regional Office
Plot No. 14022 Off Katimamulilo Road
Olympia Extension
Lusaka, Zambia

Phone: +260-21-1-290512/ 291888
Fax: +260-21-1-290512

Email: wlsazam@zamnet.zm
Website: http://www.wlsa.org.zm/

Ms. Matrine Bbuku Chuulu, Regional Coordinator

Description

Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA) is an action-oriented research organization working in seven countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. WLSA is in the process of opening a national office in Angola. It was created and established in 1989 to improve the legal situation of women in Southern Africa. It emerged out of a felt need by lawyers in Southern Africa concerned that there was a need in independent Southern Africa for laws that govern women’s lives to be explained and for reform of those laws they considered oppressive. WLSA has sought to make the law work for women by challenging the legal systems and customary laws in each country. Overall, WLSA’s vision is to be a renowned feminist organization researching and using the law to promote gender and women’s human rights in Southern Africa. The development objective of WLSA is to improve the legal status of women in Southern Africa by:

• Developing research skills and competencies of women’s law researchers in the network countries;
• Conducting action-oriented research on gender issues in Southern Africa, especially those related to socio-legal rights;
• Undertaking information work on gender and the law and influencing and law reform in the WLSA countries;
• Networking and linking WLSA offices, local organizations, regional, sub-regional and international institutions on issues relating to gender, women and the law; and
• Providing capacity building through training and planning seminars, workshops and symposiums on research and publishing research materials from a gender perspective and a rights-based approach.

WLSA comprises a team of highly motivated women lawyers and social scientists well known for their quality research and for being at the cutting edge of gender justice debates in their respective countries. It is affiliated with to several regional and international organizations, including membership of: the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) of the SADC Ministers for Gender and Women’s Affairs; Committee of Experts on Women and Development, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA); and the Gender Advisory Team to the Secretary General of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. Additionally, WLSA has observer status with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), and has applied for General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

WLSA’s budget for 2007 is US$1.4 million. For the past 13 years its action research has been supported by DANIDA, support that came to an end in April 2007. Other donors include HIVOS, UNICEF, NERHCA, Netherlands Embassy, Oxfam, Southern Africa Trust, Norwegian Church Aid, Geneva Global, Danish Church Aid, Irish Aid, the European Union, UNIFEM and OSISA.

Track Record

WLSA has grown steadily in the 15 years of its existence through many challenges, from being a project at University Campuses in the first six countries to becoming an organization well-established in each of the seven countries, and from a single employee per country to fully-fledged secretariats with full-time employees.

WLSA’s main program is action research. The organization conducts activist research, intended to inform and influence action being taken to improve women’s legal position. Such research incorporates “action” by educating women about their legal rights, providing free legal advice, questioning and challenging the law as well as instigating campaigns for changes in the law in the course of the research.

Over the years It has published research on a wide range of topics, including Maintenance Law, Inheritance Law, Family and the Legal Status of Women in the Family, The Administration of Justice Delivery, Problems and Constraints, and Gender HIV/AIDS and the Law.

These publications have galvanized WLSA’s advocating and lobbying efforts for policy changes and legal reforms. Among impacts achieved has been the reformed laws of succession in Zambia and Zimbabwe, who begun to enact married persons equality Bills that meant women were no longer regarded as minors. Various countries have been influenced to enact Domestic Violence Acts and Sexual Offences Acts Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius and Namibia. WLSA has also influenced constitutional reforms where rights of women and other minority groups have been included. WLSA also influences national governments to ratify regional, international and sub-regional protocols and conventions. WLSA has worked at establishing best practices in terms of laws and policies that will be more gender sensitive and to ensure that through its Legal Aid Services that women and children access their rights. WLSA provides free legal advice and supports women who are violated against by taking their cases to court and supporting these women through the process.

WLSA’s efforts to ensure that court structures are gender sensitive have began to bear fruit as most countries have put in place victim support units in their police service and domestic violence is now recognized as a serious violation. The courts are now more sensitive to divorce cases by ordering 50/50 share of matrimonial property upon divorce. Stiffer penalties for sexual violations have been implemented while rape in marriage has been recognized as a violation.

In 2003, WLSA assisted the United Nations Secretary General’s Task Force on Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS in its desk review of literature available and implementing activities on the six thematic areas: Prevention of HIV infection among girls and young women; Girl’s education; Violence against women and girls; Property and inheritance rights of women and girls; The role of women and girls in caring for those infected by HIV/AIDS; and Access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment for women and girls.

WLSA was actively involved in lobbying for the SADC Gender Declaration and The Addendum on the Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children, 1997 and 1998 respectively, in Malawi and Durban, South Africa. WLSA also played a key role in lobbying for the setting up of the SADC Gender Unit along with the rest of the women’s movement in the region, after Beijing.

WLSA was part and parcel of the preparatory efforts pre-Beijing and part and parcel of all government delegation in all WLSA countries to Beijing, and also part of the post Beijing efforts, at a regional level.

WLSA has been actively involved in the Drafting and Elaboration of the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, and WLSA Zambia and Mozambique chair the Steering Committee for English and Portuguese speaking countries in the sub-region respectively.

Challenges

WLSA faces the perennial challenge of improving its institutional capacity—both in terms of improving the lobbying and advocacy skills of its staff members, and in upgrading its offices with new equipment and technology.

Mobilizing resources for program and institutional support constitutes an increasingly difficult challenge for WLSA. This is partly due to the shift among its traditional donors away from funding NGOs and towards funding Governments. WLSA efforts to raise funds for its next action research topic, human trafficking (an urgent emerging issue and a big challenge in light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic), is proving difficult, even from traditional partners.

WLSA is also finding it challenging to link with strategic partners as a means of leveraging impact and advancing its agenda.

Opportunities

WLSA would like to be supported to build the capacity of its staff and to better link finances with strategic partners and like-minded organizations who share WLSA’s vision and the mission of private foundations.