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Protecting Women and Children' |
 Regional Action Forums, constituted and supported by the SARI/Equity Program, meet at regular intervals, identify their priorities, develop action plans, work on activities outlined in those plans within their National Core Groups, review progress, and spearhead the implementation of "finalized products". The First Meeting of the RAF on "Improving the Implementation of Laws Protecting Women and Children" held in Colombo in May 2004 was followed by a Second Meeting in New Delhi in December 2004. The Third Meeting which recently convened in Kathmandu (12 to 15 July 2005) was devoted to implementation strategies for one of its "final products" - The Regional Victim/Witness Protection Protocol and to reviewing its still "unfinished products" - a Regional Landmark Judgment Database on Violence against Women and Training Guidelines for Judges and the Police on the same issue. Part I - Implementing Policy Change - provided space to choose the tools and methodologies for an effective regional and national adoption/implementation plan for the Protocol; and Part II - Reviewing the "Products" settled unresolved issues regarding the two unfinished products. 
 Agreed Conclusions The "regional adoption" of the VWPP is as important as its adoption at the national level; advocacy and active lobbying with the seven SAARC countries through the SAARC secretariat are essential for its acceptance as part of the SAARC Anti-Trafficking Convention, which is expected to have been ratified by all SAARC countries in the near future. The Regional Database of over 100 Landmark Judgments on Violence against Women will be ready for print in September 2005. It should facilitate, encourage and foster the "multiplication" of progressive judgments in the region and constitute a useful tool for judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and victims alike. An Editorial Board (of three subject coordinators and one regional editor) was constituted to finalize the Regional Training Guidelines for Law Enforcement Agencies. Those guidelines should ensure that essential knowledge on manifestations of violence against women and the various remedies to combat it be included in each and every training manual in the region. |
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©
2005 Sariq.org
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