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Mobile courts aid GBV victims

Justice delayed is justice denied, but Malawi’s rural majority, including victims of gender-based violence (GBV), die thirsting for justice because courts are a spring too far for them.

The lapse is more deadening in areas where courts are few, far apart, understaffed and overwhelmed.

The census shows 84 in every 100 Malawians live in rural settings.

Women and girls awed by costly travels to courts suffer in silence, mostly victimised by people who are supposed to safeguard them.

However, mobile courts have proved handy to close the gap.

Kaliati: It can help end GBV

In May, Keke Masungwa, 42, had a rude awakening when Hope for Relief brought magistrates to hear gender-based cases in Ilengo, Traditional Authority Kameme in Chitipa, where he stabbed a girl in the stomach after allegedly catching her with a man in a house he was renting for her

During the open-air trial, first grade magistrate Billy Ngosi, who travelled 35 kilometres (km) from Chitipa Town to hear the case, sentenced the accused to eight years imprisonment for causing grievous harm, contrary to Section 238 of the Penal Code.

After the magistrate overwhelmed by a stack of cases and mobility constraints pronounced Masungwa guilty of causing grievous harm, Hope for Relief director Richard Mwanjasi said: “The verdict shows that we are on course to end GBV in the district.

“We will continue with these mobile court sessions in hard-to-reach areas to enable poor people access justice.”

To human rights defenders, shuttling court officials to underserved communities offers populations left behind stress-free access to justice.

Mwanjasi reckons the magistrates on the move lessen GBV victims’ struggle for justice amid mounting social pressure to drop the cases which involve people they know and trust.

Chitipa district gender development officer James Gubudu explains: “Many cases die naturally due to long distances to Chitipa Boma.

“For example, Kameme is located some 34km from Chitipa Boma and people pay no less than K5 000 to get there.”

In the furthest district from Capital Hill in Lilongwe, the transport fare is enough to buy a bag of maize—a staple grain.

Policymakers at the seat of government envision no one travelling over five kilometers or 30 minutes to access vital services, including justice.

This is a daydream for women and girls affected by GBV.

Prosecutor Francis Sichali said the Kameme case is serious and warrants a maximum sentence of 14 years the scarce courts traditionally reserve for the worst offenders “not yet born”.

The roving courts help clear outstanding disputes, including GBV cases silently hamstrung by draining walks to the nearest courts in hard-to-reach areas where the rural majorities grope in the dark due to low understanding of existing laws.

“What is the purpose of having laws if people are not aware of them?” asked Malawi Law Society president Patrick Mpaka in Nsanje, where the lawyers held a legal clinic to popularise gender-related laws.

He alluded to the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act lawmakers passed when Herbert Mankhwala chopped his then wife Marieta Samuel’s hands in Dowa.

“For example, the law, which was passed in 2016, is not yet known to the people it is meant to serve,” Mpaka said, asking the Ministry of Civic Education to step in.

Marieta’s tragedy moved Parliament to swiftly dust and pass the law that stalled for a decade in the Ministry of Justice. However, the shocker did little to jolt the ministry to speedily bring courts to the rural majority—the barometer of national development, according to Section 13 of the Constitution.

In Dowa, courts officials and activists are concerned that cases keep rising despite efforts to halt GBV.

“The courts are overwhelmed with backlogs of cases bordering on GBV against women and girls. We need to come up with deliberate measures to dispose of these cases,” said first grade magistrate Thomson Madiasi at Mkukula Court.

In February, Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati said convening more mobile courts would dramatically reduce GBV victim’s long wait for justice.

She reckoned the travelling court crews “get to communities where incidents happen” and “help them appreciate the harsh consequences of the acts”.

 “This helps end GBV,” she stated in Thyolo, one of the GBV hotspots.

Ending GBV accelerates the global goal to achieve gender equality by 2030.

The mobile courts are at the heart of Spotlight Initiative, the world’s largest effort to end violence being implemented by UN agencies with funding from the European Union.

Judges and prosecutors have hit the road, unpacking gender laws and hearing hanging cases.

“As a response to the high demand for justice, we have assigned 30 lawyers to different districts to provide pro bono services to GBV victims,” said Judge Wongani Kanyenda when the Women Judges Association of Malawi brought courts closer to Nkhata Bay.

Ex-prosecutor Janet Liabunya, now Unicef child protection specialist, sees every day how rural women and girls struggle to pursue justice.  She states that the hidden costs of justice are stacked up against women.

“In a society where family finances are controlled mostly by men, this imbalance has a devastating toll”.

Apart from running the courts that go to the people instead of forcing clients to find them, Liabunya’s team supports waivers in court fees and provide transportation for the police to respond quickly.

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