WUNRN
MADAGASCAR - LEGAL AID CLINICS HELP
RURAL WOMEN
Armandine
Razanapako is now receiving child support payments from her ex-husband.
Photo: Annelie Rozeboom/IRIN
MANANJARY, 22 December 2011 (IRIN) - Legal aid clinics are
playing an important role during Madagascar's current political and economic
crisis, especially for poverty-hit rural women who are under-served by the
country's ailing judicial system.
In the southeast of Madagascar, women's rights used to be defended in special village
councils, called 'anakavy amin-dreny' (the “sisters and mothers”). Although the
village chief was always male, he was obliged to discuss issues with the head
woman and the “sisters and mothers” had the authority to punish abusive
husbands or male relatives who refused to share inherited land.
While these traditional structures still exist, in modern Madagascar they have
no real power to protect women from abuses and the official judicial system has
done little to address the gap. While the country’s laws put women on an equal
status with men, legal institutions lacked resources to implement legislation
even before the crisis.
An assessment by the Women’s Legal Rights Initiative, a US
Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded programme, described
Madagascar's justice sector as plagued by poverty and corruption: "There
are not enough personnel, let alone trained personnel, or resources in the
judicial system. There is only one forensic laboratory for the entire country;
some police stations have neither paper nor typewriters."
The situation has deteriorated further since Andry Rajoelina's ousting of
President Marc Ravalomanana in 2009. During two
years of political deadlock, the police and the courts have virtually stopped
functioning in some provinces due to lack of funding. The country is served by
just 35 courts which are difficult for people in rural areas to reach. With
illiteracy rates as high as 80 percent among rural women, even those who can
make it to a court have difficulty understand the proceedings.
Local chiefs not the answer
Armandine Razanapako, 50, an inhabitant of Mananjary on the south-east coast,
is a case in point. After she separated from her husband in 2006, he refused to
pay child support for their three children. “I don’t have a job, and I had to
pay school fees,” she said.
In Mananjary people usually turn to local chiefs to mediate in disputes, but in
Razanapako’s case, they were not very helpful. “These men are good in resolving
family quarrels, where everybody attends a meeting and talks. But when it comes
to making a husband pay, he will have to take the family of the husband into
consideration, so there was no concrete result,” she recalled.
These institutions
have become the road to take for the poor...They contribute to peace in the
rural communities and help people to overcome their fear of stepping into an
office
|
Razanapako and her children tried to survive by walking 11km
out of town to cut cloves during the weekends. Razanapako also washed clothes
for neighbours and sold charcoal on the street. Finally, the head of her
`fokotano' or neighbourhood advised her to go to Trano Arozo, a legal aid
clinic housed in a cramped building next to the central market, where groups of
women try to make a living selling vegetables.
“I wasn’t afraid to go there, as I was only asking for the rights of my
children,” she said. “I went on 17 June and on 20 June I got money.” Now, when
neighbours in similar situations ask her what she did to make her husband pay
up, she sends them to Trano Arozo.
Set up by local NGO Fiantso in 2007 with funding from the UN Development
Programme, the Netherlands-based Inter-church Organization for Development
(ICCO), and the Ministry of Justice, Trano Arozo was southeastern Madagascar's
first legal aid clinic.
In 2008, Fiantso set up two more such clinics in Manakara and Farafangana and
in 2010, three more were opened in the south of the country with funding from
the European Union. The clinics are under the supervision of the Ministry of
Justice, but managed by Fiantso.
Justice within reach
According to Amélie Razafindrahasy of Fiantso, the purpose of the clinics is to
ensure that justice is within reach, especially for women. “Victims are often
poor, and don’t have the means to travel far to reach authorities. As they are
scared, they often prefer to stay silent. The clinics help them on their way,”
she said.
Getting fathers to pay child support is one of the main tasks of the Legal Aid
Clinic in Mananjary where about 75 percent of clients are women. “The problem
is that the men don’t have a lot of money either. We negotiate with them about
how much they can pay; once they agree, they both sign,” Ratsimbaharisoa
explained. “If he signs, and doesn’t pay up, we’ll send them on to the real
court, but this rarely happens.”
The clinic's legal advisers serve about 50 clients a month and deal with
marital problems as well as disputes over land rights and unpaid loans. Staff
also do outreach programmes in the local community, organizing meetings at
schools and villages and informing people about their legal rights.
"People don't know their rights, but they change when they get the right
information, " Ratsimbaharisoa said.
“These institutions have become the road to take for the poor...They contribute
to peace in the rural communities and help people to overcome their fear of
stepping into an office.”