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Last Week at a Glance Issue 50
Women's
Coalition
December 14, 2010
Women
and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust pretest
Family Laws handbook
On the 7th of
December 2010, Women
and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA)
held a pre-testing workshop on the comic style version of the family
laws handbook at Cresta Lodge in Harare.
The project
started in 2009 as a partnership between WLSA and the Ministry of
Women Affairs to produce an updated family laws handbook. WLSA explained
that since 1980 Zimbabwe has passed a number of laws that govern
family relations. These include the Legal Age of Majority Act of
1982(now part of the General Laws of Amendments Act), Matrimonial
Causes Act of 1985, Administration of Estates Amendment Act of 1997,
Maintenance Act, Criminal
Law Code, Children
Act and the Domestic
Violence Act of 2007.
In 1997 a family
laws handbook was created by the then Ministry of National Affairs
Employment creation and co-operatives that was used as both a training
guide and resource book. However these laws have changed and this
has rendered the handbook archaic due to the changes that have taken
place in the laws. Most family laws have been replaced, some amended.
The half day
workshop was attended by 18 participants who included representatives
from the Ministry of Women Affairs, Advisory committee of the family
laws handbook, civic society organizations and the media houses.
The overall objective of the workshop was to critique the draft
comic style version of the family laws handbook in Zimbabwe.
WLSA has now
moved on to phase two which involves editing and printing of the
handbook and simplification of the laws into pamphlets. WLSA has
produced the simplified version of the handbook in comic style pamphlets.
These pamphlets will be translated into Ndebele and Shona.
It is on this
background that the Ministry of Women Affairs Gender and Community
Development funded by the UNDP partnered with WLSA to produce the
comic style pamphlet on family laws in Zimbabwe. The comic style
pamphlets are to be used mainly by officers of the Ministry of Women
Affairs to train people in the communities. However they can be
accessed by anyone.
Last
Weeks Events
Voices
of young women in Zimbabwe - Young African Leaders Movement
(YWALM)
A number of
young women marched from Girls High School to the Parliament Entrance
on the 8th of December 2010. The key objective of the march was
to present the petition to the Government Ministries and Departments.
Young Women in Zimbabwe require full cooperation in facilitating
the enforcement of various instruments and facilitates at their
disposal towards the empowerment and advancement of young women.
Young women especially in marginalized areas have often been sidelined,
hence government bodies are being required to visit their policies
with special attention to these young women. The petition was based
on the findings from the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe under the project
of YWALM titled Capturing the Voices of Young Women in Zimbabwe;
this was in partnership with Be The Next Young Woman Politician
Campaign.
Membership
Profile
Women
Action Group (WAG) was established in 1983. Its mission statement
is to advocate and defend women's human rights in Zimbabwe
and to provide them with the tools to assert those rights. WAG's
work is carried out holistically and programmes incorporated women's
legal and health rights. Its objectives are create and increase
public awareness on legal and health rights of women in Zimbabwe;
encourage women to be directly involved in making decisions on issues
that affect their lives; advocate for gender sensitive policies
and ensure that women have access to justice. WAG is headed by Edinah
Masiyiwa.
Visit the Women's
Coalition fact
sheet
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