WLD HISTORY
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      • Intro Freedom from V
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  • Home
    • The story of WLD
    • About Women, Law and Development
    • About the Website
    • About the Author
  • Beginnings
    • First Initiatives
    • Central America Legal Services
    • Nairobi Forum
  • Organizing
    • Early regional linkages
    • Asia
    • Latin America
    • Africa
    • Interregional connections
    • WLD International
  • Research
    • Clarifying issues and strategies
    • Participatory Research Project
      • Intro Freedom from V
      • Intro Legal Literacy
    • Step by Step
      • Step by Step Acknowledgements
  • Advocacy
    • Agenda setting with NGOs and UN bodies
    • Claiming Our Place
    • Support of the Special Rapporteur
    • Basic Needs Basic Rights
  • Capacity Building
    • Capacity Building
    • Human Rights Training
      • Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
      • Nigeria Human Rights Training
    • International Advocates Course
    • Russian Lawyers
  • Publications
  • Chronology
  • Reflections
  • Network Links
  • Website Map
© Margaret Schuler
WLD HISTORY
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Participatory Research on
Violence against Women and Legal Literacy

Gender violence began to emerge as an issue and a priority for action on an international scale during the 1975-1985 UN Decade for Women.   Women's personal and social disempowerment also emerged as an issue and as a priority for action internationally following the Women’s Conference and NGO Forum in Nairobi.
Previously unrecognized as a problem globally, the staggering magnitude and varieties of violence directed against women worldwide started to be recognized by governments and international bodies alike in the years following the Nairobi forum. But the work of finding solutions and shaping strategies to combat gender violence was initiated and implemented primarily by nongovernmental, feminist, and sometimes grassroots, organizations. Through their commitment and creativity, they brought the reality of gender violence and women’s disempowerment to the light of day and crafted responses that confront the concrete ugliness of rape and battery and female infanticide and all of the other forms it takes. They searched for ways to confront the roots of gen­der violence and challenge the underlying values and structures of human society that permit women to be treated as targets of brutality.
"Empowering women to make the law relevant and real in their lives" was identified by the WLD forum as an imperative. So, together with the priority to end violence against women, rights awareness and legal literacy also emerged as important strategic concerns.
Responding to these priorities, WLD organized two projects as a search for solutions. Legal Literacy: A Tool for Women's Empowerment and Freedom from Violence: Women's Strategies from Around the World participatory research projects were about the search for strategies to empower women and to confront violence in the home, in the street and in the workplace.
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The purpose of the Legal Literacy project was to contribute to the conceptual and methodological clarity about legal literacy and the issues sur­rounding it. This was done by focusing critically on sev­eral themes, such as operative concepts of legal literacy, program designs, and the actual and potential roles of lawyers and other agents of legal literacy. These and other concerns surfaced by sharing cross-cultural experiences and engaging the network of activists in an on-going dialogue. The variety of cultural contexts and the diversity of experiences and strate­gies represented established the background for the emergence of a common analytical perspective. This output of the project, the Legal Literacy book, was offered as a resource for activists and advocates of women's issues who are engaged in the daily struggle to include women in the political economy, to empower them socially, politically, economically through service programs, education and public awareness campaigns, law reform activities or other strategies.
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The purpose of the Freedom From Violence project was to present an overview of issues and strategies related specifically to gen­der violence. The variety of cultural contexts and the diversity of forms of violence against women represented in the project established the backdrop for dialogue and the emergence of a common perspective for analyzing strategies. The result, the Freedom From Violence book, was directed primarily to women activists and advocates who are engaged in the daily struggle to overcome violence against women through services programs, education and public awareness campaigns, law reform activities or other strate­gies. The research  did not focus on any specific form of violence or strategy, but on common threads of experience and analysis as a source of inspiration and a resource for action.
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The Santa Fe Seminars
To set the framework for the research and subsequent publications, WLD invited a core group women on each of the two topics to participate in planning seminars 
in late May 1990. Marg VeneKlasen, Lisa's mother, facilitated the donation of a large house for our use in Santa Fe, New Mexico that accommodated the entire group.  The "violence" group deliberated for the first week, drawing from their knowledge and experience on the topic. The group included Irene Fernandez, Malaysia, Nelly Gonzalez, Chile, Asma M. A' Haleem, Sudan, Sheelagh Stewart, Zimbabwe, Sonia Montaño, Bolivia and Luisa Nagib Eluf, Brazil, along with Lisa VeneKlasen and me. ​The "legal literacy" group, which met with us the following week, was comprised of Florence Butegwa, Uganda, Elizabeth Dasso, Peru, Akua Kuenyehia, Ghana, Meena Patel, India and Salma Sobhan, Bangladesh. Each of the groups defined key terms, identified critical issues and set the framework for the papers to be written and identified additional writers to be included.
The stunning beauty of New Mexico, a region of the world none of the participants had preciously known, set the tone for ​an exciting and productive couple of weeks. And the informal setting of the meeting lent itself to openness, sharing and dialog about both personal and professional experiences that added depth to the strategy analysis that was the core of the project. It was a serious time, but it was also enjoyable, as the small groups bonded through discussions, sharing meals together, exploring Santa Fe and environs, interacting with local activists and relaxing in informal evening gatherings. The result surpassed expectations and the experience of working together evoked fond memories for years to come.
​Over the next several months papers were written on the topics selected at the Santa Fe meeting. The papers were then edited and the book prepared for publication in 1991. They were published and distributed in 1992 with the collaboration of UNIFEM.
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Photos from the Santa Fe Seminar
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The two sections below list the authors and research papers of each book. At the end of the section is a link to the introduction and theoretical foundation for each book, as well as a link to the book itself. 
​Freedom From Violence: Women's Strategies 
This publication explores a range of violence issues from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the US.
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Overview Margaret Schuler
Violence against Women, an International Perspective 
Sri Lanka Radhika Coomaraswamy  
Of Kali Born: Women, Violence and the Law
Pakistan Hina Jilani
Whose Laws? Human Rights and Violence

India Govind Kelkar
Stopping the Violence Against Women: Fifteen Years of Activism
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Malaysia Irene Fernandez
Mobilizing on All Fronts: A Comprehensive Strategy to End Violence Against Women       
Thailand Siriporn Skrobanek
Exotic, Subservient and Trapped: Confronting Prostitution and Traffic in Women 
Sudan Asma M. A'Haleem
Claiming Our Bodies and Our Rights: Exploring Female Circumcision as an Act of Violence
 
Zimbabwe Sheelagh Stewart
Working the System: Sensitizing the Police to the Plight of Women

Mexico Elizabeth Shrader Cox
Developing Strategies: Efforts to End Violence Against Women
Brazil Luiza Eluf
A New Approach to Law Enforcement: The Special Women's Police Station           
Bolivia Sonia Montano
Long Live the Differences with Equal Rights: A Campaign to End Violence Against Women           
Chile Nelly Gonzalez
A New Concept of Mediation: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Domestic Violence
United States Lori Heise and Jane Roberts Chapman
Reflections on a Movement: The U.S. Battle Against Women Abuse 
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To learn more about the conceptual framework of the book, read
​Violence against Women: An International Perspective by Margaret Schuler
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To learn more about or download the entire book, here is the link: Freedom From Violence
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Read review about both books by Heidi Chesley, Harvard Women's law Journal, Spring 1993 Freedom from Violence and legal Literacy

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​Legal Literacy: A Tool for Women's Empowerment
​This publication explores how to make the law accessible to women, how paralegals can be resources and agents of legal literacy, political organizing and education methods and concerns. 
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Overview and Theory
Legal Literacy as a Tool for Women's Empowerment
Margaret Schuler and Sakuntala Rajasingham
Making the law accessible to women: lawyers as resources and agents of legal literacy
  • Designing Legal Literacy to Make the Law Accessible to Women in the Caribbean Roberta Clarke
  • From Theory to Practice: Reflections on Legal Literacy with Women in India Ratna Kapur 
  • Experiences with Legal Literacy in Sri Lanka Savitri Goonesekere
  • Challenges of Promoting Legal Literacy Among Women in Uganda Florence Butegwa 
Paralegals As Resources and Agents of Legal Literacy  
  • Paralegals as Community Resources in Peru: Asociacion Peru Mujer Elizabeth Dasso  ​
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  • Paralegals and Labor Organizing in India: The Self-Employed Women's Association Meena Patel​​
  • Gender, Community Development and Paralegal Training in the Philippines: Pilipina Legal Resources Center Emelina Quintilian  
  • Legal Literacy and Community Development in Bangladesh: Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Salma Sobhan  
Legal Literacy and Political Organizing
  • Women's Legal Rights Organizing and Political Participation in Africa Lisa VeneKlasen  
  • Feminist Organizing in Mexico: From Consciousness Raising to Action Ximena Bedregal
Educational Concerns: Problems and Methods
  • Legal Literacy and Law Enforcement Agencies in Ghana Akua Kuenyehia 
  • Fostering Rights Awareness through Community Publishing in Zimbabwe Kathy Bond Stewart     ​
Read introduction and conceptual framework​: A Tool for Women's Empowerment
To learn more about or download the entire book, here is the link: Legal Literacy
Read review about both books by Heidi Chesley, Harvard Women's law Journal, Spring 1993 Freedom from Violence and legal Literacy

Continue on to Women's Human Rights :
Step by Step project
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Women, Law & Development 
Its history and contributions to the global women's rights movement. 
by Margaret Schuler 

Women, Law and Development

In these pages, Margaret Schuler, the initiator and director of WLD for many years, shares the story of its development and the contributions it has made to the international movement.