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Women's Legal Rights

Practical Guide and Methods to Advance Women's Legal Rights: Final Report of Women's Legal Rights Initiative

Download full document: Practical Guide and Methods; 1/2007 [PDF, 7.6MB]

Women victims of gender-based violence participate in a dance and singing presentation at Village of Hope in Rwanda, October 2004. Village of Hope is a project of WLR partner Rwanda Women's Network and provides shelter, medical care, HIV/AIDS education, legal rights education, and psychological counseling.

This final report summarizes the Women's Legal Rights Initiative's achievements and innovations across the 10 countries in which it had active programming. It consists of five chapters and three annexes.

Chapters One through Four describe specific country activities related to each of the intermediate results sought.

Included are references to USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) - http://dec.usaid.gov/ - where the reader can access WLR documents that were produced in the course of implementation of the various projects.

These documents have been published on the DEC for use by others who wish to duplicate or adapt WLR's approach to implementation.

Chapter Five describes those tools and strategies that were common to all projects and which can be readily transferable to future women's legal rights programming by other providers of international development assistance. Notable success stories and monitoring and evaluation results appear throughout the report.

Annex A includes performance and monitoring data from 16 quarters of the project.

Annex B provides annotations for the materials included in each of the sections of the report and links to the materials on USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse. These materials, which include curricula, memoranda of understanding, and draft laws can be used as templates and models for others working to advance women's legal rights in their respective countries.

Lastly, Annex C lists WLR's key contacts in Albania, Benin, Guatemala, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Swaziland.

Women's Legal Rights and International Development

Women worldwide lack access to legal rights and face discrimination and violence. Even in countries adopting democratic practices, the continued subordination of women combined with poverty, lack of awareness of human rights, and limited access to redress rights violations can lead to exploitation and abuse.

Legal and customary barriers often prevent women from exercising their full legal rights. Discriminatory laws, poor justice-sector capacity, and weak enforcement also restrict women's legal rights.

Ultimately, the limited participation of women in community and political life, together with restrictions on women's civil, property, and human rights, impede economic growth and retard progress toward democracy.

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