Training with litigation Committee on Improving access to Justice for Women in Imo state

With support from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), AfA facilitated an inception meeting with a strategic litigation committee constituted by AfA, towards improving access to justice for women and girls in Imo state.

The committee comprised 15 members from the ministry of Justice, frontline service providers who help identify cases, civil society organizations, human rights, media, FIDA.

The first strategy identified was the designing of a framework for documentation of cases. FIDA and Human Rights were charged with the responsibility to document cases. Human rights-based approach to Survivors’ interviews, filing of cases and supporting transportation for court appearance were also strategies identified to support litigation.

The committee accepted the following as scope of strategic litigation

• Harmful traditional practice: widowhood practice, FGM, Child Marriage.
• Sexual Violence: Rape, Sexual Harassment, Sex Trafficking, Sexual Exploitation and abuse.
• Child Trafficking: baby factory, Child Abduction,
• Rights to Inheritance
• Domestic Violence: Abandonment, Battery, Force Ejection.
• Other Strategic Cases

Committee members’ role in improving access to justice for women, were identified and analyzed using Human right based approach, including the need for the implementation of policy framework.