Law for Pacific Women: A Lena! Rights Handbook

Book Review

Publisher: Fiji Women’s rights Movement, PO Box 14194, Suva, Fiji.

By Patricia Imrana Jalal

LAW for Pacific Women is the product of six years of study, research, training and writing. Its 700 pages document, in simple (non-legalese)

English, the legal and human rights

status of Pacific Island women in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru. It suggests ways in which gov ernments, courts, and NGOs in the region can cause substantive legal equality for women.

The book contains a wealth of informa tion including over 300 real life case reports and judgements from Pacific Island courts, extracts from legislation, and statis tical tables. Law for Pacific Women is the first full-length text specifically written on women and the law in the South Pacific.

Its assessment of conflicts between formal and customary laws is particularly interest ing. The book has been written chiefly as a source of information for human and legal rights teachers, students, community par alegals, community workers, activists and policy planners. It is accessible to anyone who want to look critically at the law, understand how it can be an instrument of women’s status, and to take some informed action. The book in draft form has already been extensively used by RRRT and FWRM as the basis for preparing training materials for local and regional training

and workshops. The Fiji Womens Rights

Movement also hopes it will be used by those lawyers who are interested in human rights, by lawyers and judicial officials whom are not familiar with family law or who see it as just another branch of the law, and by government policy planners and legislators engaged in law reform and putting affirmative action policies into

place.

The book has 15 chapters. Chapter one begins by asking, ’What is the law?’ Here it describes the nature and operations of the law and the basic concepts of legislation, jurisdiction, common law and precedent.

Next is how the law works in practice

before moving to the question, ‘How does the law affect women?’ Thus to the book’s basic theme: how and why the law dis criminates against women.

Chapters two and three deal with the constitution, customary law and land laws on women. Chapters four, five and six focus on criminal law: sexual offences and other criminal assaults on women and chil dren, and criminal offences committed by women. Chapters seven to 12 concern mar

riage, separation, divorce, maintenance,

matrimonial property, de facto rights, ille gitimate children and the custody and access of children. Then in chapter 13 and 14, it turns to women and work. In chapter 14, it looks at women who work as lawyers, and women who receive legal aid.

It ends with chapter 15 that deals with strategies for using the law to improve the status of women. This chapter suggests practical ways to cause legislative and common law changes using test cases, international UN Conventions, gender training for judicial and other officials and

the law reform process. The endnotes, glossary, bibliography and indexes are pro vided as aids to further research and study.

“Women of the South Pacific will wel come this reference book which in as sim ple a language as the subject will a110w... relates their own experiences in what will become a seminal work. It carefully dis cusses all aspects of the law as it affects the rights of women in both civil and crim inal jurisdictions. Therein lies its appeal” - Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi (from the fore word).

The academic stage preceding the research stage has been funded through scholarships from The Asia Foundation and the Australian Federation of University Women (Qld & National). The research and printing of the book has been funded by The Asia Foundation and British Aid (Dfid) through the Pacific Regional Human Rights Education Resource Team

(Rrrt).

The proceeds of the sale will go to the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement. ■