Quarterly Focus

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WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF SOLOMON ISLANDS

Quarterly Focus 13 August 2008

Membership # 30

Message from the President In this issue • Women in Law Venture out…. • Legal workshop for women by women • Membership Forms • Links to other Women Lawyer Societies. • Contact Details

Executive: President – Jean Gordon, Vice President: Mirriam Lidimani Treasurer; Anika Kingmele Secretary: Georgia Harley Members: Sophie Munamua, Carol Pitisopa

Greetings to all of you for our first issue of the Women In Law, Newsletter; it also coincides with our 30th Independence Anniversary, perhaps our group is an indication of our progress. I will provide some background as to our Women in Law Association, focusing on its formation and summarizing our first year’s activities. The Women in Law Association was formed in 2005 when a group of women lawyers gathered together and formally approved the Constitution. The initial membership was around 18 women lawyers. The Women in Law Association matters are executed on behalf of the Association by the Executive Committee which consists of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and 2 executive members. The Executive is responsible for the co-ordination, administration and day to day management of the Association. The first Executive Committee was elected at the November 2006 meeting and comprises of Jean A. Gordon as President, Mirriam Lidimani as Vice-President, Secretary initially was Michelle Gardiner, who has since left Solomon Islands and our current Secretary is now Georgia Harley. Anika Kingmele is our Treasurer and we have Sophia Munamua and Carol Pitasopa as our executive members. Thanks also to Flory Alalo who had previously served as an executive member. The Women in Law Association was established at a time when the country itself was undergoing dramatic change. In particular, was the entrance of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and the assistance and enhancement of capacity in the judicial sector. This period of time produced a surge of both individual and national expectancy towards the delivery of better governance and rule of law to the different individuals and marginalized groups. Highlighted is the need for the improved attention and accessibility to the machinery of the law for both women and children and also the need to establish equal gender participation in our government institutions. Members of the Women in Law Association recognized their individual capacity to respond to these needs was limited and so decided to pool their capacity and limited resources and formed the Association through which to administer and accomplish the objects of the Association. The Association is in its early years of existence and its formative years; it has a proud record of having actively

Graphics by: June Maru

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pursued a range of activities to firmly ground the Association and to support its members: to further the understanding of and support for the legal and human rights of women, it held a Legal Awareness workshop for the Christian Care Centre workers and other participants at the Save the Children conference room;

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fostering social interaction amongst members, a social night was organized by the Executive and held at a member’s residence; and recently on May 30th we had a picnic at Hammock Beach.

• in promoting the recognition of the Association, the Association was featured in a one page local feature in the Solomon Star Weekend Magazine dated 1 June, 2007; •

in furthering and support of the legal and human rights of women, Executive members have been invited and are part of the reporting mechanism at the government level for the CEDAW report; in working towards equal opportunity and the advancement of women generally, Executive members have been exposed to and aware of the recently launched Strategy in advancing the positions of women in Government”;

In the Global context, CEDAW has dominated the international arena, regionally we have what used to be the SPC Pacific Women’s Bureau, nationally we have the NCW; on the ground, legally most women continue to struggle with violence in the home, inequality at work, abuse of rights that most do not even know of. Women in Law can make the change by using our acquired legal expertise and network together to produce legal and institutionalized changes. I would encourage our members to network together and with other associations and groups that are working together to improve the status of women. I look forward to the year 2008/2009. We intend to keep you informed via our newsletter and we welcome any contribution that you may wish to make. We also invite you to become a financial member of our Association. Application forms can be picked up from any one of us. We wish you all the best for this year 2008. President Jean A. Gordon

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WOMEN IN LAW VENTURE OUT By Joy Rikimae THE Solomon Islands Women’s Lawyers Association is one of the newly formed associations in Solomon Islands. It prompted from a group of women lawyers who felt the need to share their knowledge with other women in Solomon Islands as well as their needs and challenges. An association that aimed at helping others know about our laws. This first ever women lawyers association is headed by president Jean Gordon According to Ms Gordon the idea to form such an association exist a long time ago, during the days when there were still not many women lawyers in the country,...” was around the 1980s and at that time there was only myself, the former acting Attorney General Nuatali Tongarutu and Maelyn Bird........” “We were the only female lawyers in the country then and during then the idea of forming an association was there but because we do not have the number and our group was so small we never brought it out for discussion," Mrs. Gordon stated. In fact, Ms Gordon said it was some 10 years later that another female lawyer graduated, Florrie Alalo Paulsen bringing the number of women lawyers to four. All four of us were members of the SI Bar Association but we did not focus on women's issues or needs yet. Most of the women's issues then were only dealt with by the Public Solicitors Office - an office where most local women do not feel comfortable in approaching because of its status.

The group's constitution was drafted and in November 2006 it was adopted with the establishment of a board of trustees who include Ms Gordon, Ms Tongarutu, Ms Lidimani, Ms Carol Pitisopa and Ms Anika Kingmele. With all these legal requirements in place, the members had their first programme at the Christian Care Centre late last year. The workshop, which was on women and law, drew a lot of participants from church groups, officers and members of the public. It was from this workshop that we see that there is a great need, especially when it comes to resource people teaching women on the basic areas of law. It also makes us realise that most of the time we tend to hire overseas experts to talk about women's issues when we ourselve can do it, Ms Gordon said. She said from feedbacks after the workshop, many women had expressed the need for more awareness on legal matters especially when dealing with women's issues. So now we are making ourselves available to any women's groups around the country who want us to talk to them about any issues about the law because after all, this is one of our main objectives in forming the group, Ms Gordon said. We form because we want to help Solomon Islands women understand the law - women and law. She said issues such as equal opportunities, women's rights, domestic violence and so on. We want to focus on domestic violence because often this affect mothers and children. Each of us see that it is important we share the knowledge we now have by helping other women in the country who do not have the opportunity to reach this standard.

It was not until 1999 when women's issues started getting more exposure that it prompted the establishment of the Family Support Centre - a centre to cater for women's needs.

Each of us see that it is important we share the knowledge we now have by helping other women in the country who do not have the opportunity to reach this standard.

That increase was what gave us the number to form this association Ms Gordon said.

A part from this, the members of the association also help each other by sharing their experiences when there is a need among each of them.

An informal meeting was held at the High Court conference room and all the women lawyers agreed to forming the association.

Currently the association is also looking at working in all levels of the society.

In July 2006 the ladies appointed an executive headed by Ms Gordon as president and Ms Lidimani as vicepresident.

In the grassroots level the women lawyers want to focus in areas of education and awareness programmes.

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Grapevine corner…...Herem kam oketa!!.. Up coming events………………..

UP COMING EVENTS…… AND ANNOUCEMENTS •

Annual General Meeting

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Social Functions

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Fundraising

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Legal Awareness workshops

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Membership fee for new graduates only $20.00

(to be kept in the loop, become a member today and you will receive up-to-date information on these happenings…..see page 8 for further details.)

Women in law venture out…….continued On the government level, they want to ensure there is equal opportunities for both men and women in the public sector. We want to ensure there is a piece of law that recognises equal opportunities to be in the policies of this country, the president said. The association also want an input in the new policies set by the NGOs. In the NGO system, new policies are coming up every now and then we are interested in giving some input into those new policies, because obviously women are the ones who will be affected. She said there are so many areas to cover in educating women about the laws of the country. This she said was proven during the association's workshop at Christian Care Centre. Most women who have attended our first workshop even asked us questions such as what is law, can we use the law, does the law also address needs of women? These are questions that show there is a lot of work ahead of us. But she said what she highlighted was just some of the many issues which many women in SI do not know about especially when it comes to law.

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Legal Workshop for women by women.

“Can a man be charged with rape of his wife?”

It soon became apparent that other women would also benefit from such training and invitations to attend the workshop were extended to women from other organisations. 13 women from the Christian Care Centre, the Family Support Centre, the Ministry of Health Social Welfare Division, Oxfam and the Mothers Union took part in the workshop on 6h February. Vice-President of the Women Lawyers Association, Mirriam Lidimani, ably stepped into the role of convener of the workshop at the last moment.

“What can women do if the court makes a restraining order but the police don’t serve this?”

“Can you get lump sum child maintenance if the father is going overseas?”

The workshop was opened by Christine Fowler, Senior Development Program Specialist from the RAMSI Law and Justice Program. “By supporting community organisations like the Women Lawyers Association, the RAMSI Law and Justice Program is helping to increase access to justice for women by raising awareness about laws that can affect them”, she said. A number of members of the Women Lawyers Association, namely Mrs Titiulu, Mrs Habru, Mrs Fa’asau Pasikala, Mrs Kingmele, Ms Munamua and Mrs Lidimani, delivered presentations on various topics at the workshop. The presentations were well received and stimulated much discussion and Participants of the many questions, including: 1.

Can a man be charged with the rape of his wife?

if the father is going overseas? 4. Getting and enforcing maintenance orders can be very difficult – especially when fathers move to the provinces – what can you do? 5. What can women do if the court makes a restraining order but the police don’t serve this? 6. Can you get a restraining order against someone who is not family? 7. Can you get a restraining order against someone who is not family? As an example of this, one of the participants from the Mothers Union stated that she was very proud that women are helping women in this way. She said it can be very confusing with custom, church and the laws of the nation and that the workshop had really helped her. Participants also made a number of useful suggestions including that if the workshop was run again then perhaps it should be run over a full day as there was a lot of material to cover, and perhaps it could include the issue of adoption, and women from more organisations and other churches could be invited……………….continued on page 5

workshop

Participants of the Workshop, with the facilitators from the Women In Law Association.

2. What if a boy and a girl having sexual intercourse are both underage? 3. Can you get lump sum child maintenance

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Legal Workshop for women by women...continued……….. This first ever event organised and delivered by the Women Lawyers Association was a resounding success and demonstrated how much women lawyers have to offer and can assist other women in understanding the law, legal processes and their legal rights. A big thank you to all the women lawyers who prepared presentations and delivered these at the workshop, especially to Mirriam Lidimani for stepping into the role of convener and ensuring the workshop ran smoothly and professionally. The Association would also like to thank Sister Doreen for identifying the need for the workshop, Tania Herbert from the Christian Care Centre for assisting with the organisation, the RAMSI Law and Justice Program for sponsoring the workshop, and all the participants who attended the workshop.

Together the new association share this Joint Secretariat, this office is occupied by the Senior Administrative Officer (SAO) to the Associations, Mrs. June Maru. Women In Law Association expressed their gratitude to the RAMSI Law & Justice Program for funding the setting up of their Joint Secretariat with SIBA. Our office is on the third floor of the Placemakers Building opposite the Main Market. Take the stairs up from the Public Solicitors Office and drop by to say hello!

The Pioneering Executive of the Women Lawyers Association 2007 (Left to right, back to front) Gabrielle.Brown.,Florrie

June Maru in the Joint Secretariat Office

Women in Law Association is available to assist by formal arrangement any request for legal awareness raising, on issues affecting women, children, families and young people. Second meeting of the initial WILA 2007

Alalo, Amelia.Pasikala.Fa’asau,Nuatali Tongarutu, Sophia Munamua, Anika Kingmele, Jean Gordon, Michelle Gardiner, Miriam Lidimani………..These are the women who started the Women in Law Association to cater for Female lawyers in the country.

WILA have new secretariat. The Women In Law Association of Solomon Islands has recently established a Secretariat office in collaboration with the Solomon Islands Bar Association (SIBA).

Those who are interested in receiving legal awareness sessions are required to contact us by formal letter stating what organization or group you represent and specify your area of interest. You can send your letters to PO Box 1925 or email us at [email protected] or call Phone: 23399 for any further inquiries.

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MY QUIET CAMPAIGN AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Contributed by, Lisa Rebiara Horiwapu from Vois Blong Mere. THIS IS A TRIBUTE FOR A FRIEND WHO ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST WEEK AFTER THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY WITH ITS THEME" ENDING IMPUNITY AGAINST VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS TRAGEDILY LOST HERS TO THE VERY "DOMESTIC VIOLENCE". I was the high school girl who rarely speaks but famously smiles. Very tiny in body size that anybody who sees me knows very well I am physically fragile...Please excuse yourself when you pass me by, you might make me fall if I don't see you in time. I became a mother, very loving to my little children and struggled with them to make ends meet. I was like any loving woman, sure sometimes I make mistakes, but getting up early in the mornings to prepare breakfast on the table, working up until late just to make sure the kids were okay for the night. I speak very quietly and smiles very beautifully whenever I meet someone I know. I am giving all my love to all I love, what more do you want? Am I that aggressive? Why do I have to go through the rough path that is not suppose to be ours? Why take my life when I still want to live and see my children grow up and become what the Almighty wants them to become? It is my dream to see my children grow up healthy both in body and soul. I prayed every night just for the Good Lord to let me live for everyone I love. To women of Solomon Islands, life is full of mystery. Just for one second watch your step and where you are going. You might be on the rough path but have not raised your voice. Domestic violence is out of the agenda. To my fellow country men, little and vulnerable as I am, like it or not I am the mother of our beloved nation. Respect my differences and understand me for who I am and most of all take care of me!?????

Contributions to this newsletter are most welcome!! Write an article! Send us a letter! Or a photo! Please send your contributions to June Maru at [email protected] or to Women In Law Association PO Box 1925 Honiara, we can then include your contribution in our next newsletter!!!!!!

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Women Lawyers in Solomon Islands This form is for all women Lawyers in the country who are members and those who are not members, this is to up-date our database of the number of female legal professionals in the country. So we do not miss you out for important notices ie for Annual General Meeting or Social functions.

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE WOMEN IN LAW ASSOCIATION The extract below from our Constitution outlines who is eligible for membership to the Association. Full Membership 5.1

The following women may apply for full membership of the Association: 5.1.1

those who have been admitted as a legal practitioner of the High Court of Solomon Islands and who remain on the roll;

5.1.2

those entitled to practise as a legal practitioner in Solomon Islands because they hold an appointment or office in the service of the Government for which a legal qualification is required;

5.1.3

women law graduates in Solomon Islands; and

5.1.4

women judicial officers in Solomon Islands.

Associate Membership 5.2

Apart from members who are eligible under clause 5.1, the following may apply for associate membership of the Association: 5.2.1

women law students in Solomon Islands;

5.2.2

women law students from Solomon Islands studying at any university; and

5.2.3

women police prosecutors in Solomon Islands.

5.3

Associate members may attend but shall not be entitled to vote at Annual General Meetings or Special General Meetings of the Association.

5.4

Associate members shall not be eligible to hold a position on the Executive Committee.

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Good news for new Graduates membership has just been discounted to only $20.00 for you, become a

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member today!!!!

Membership Form

Membership Category Annual fee (valid until end of next AGM)
Full Member (other than government employee) $100
Full Member (government employee) $50
Associate Member $35 Declaration I have read and agree with the stated objects of WILASI, wish to become a member of WILASI, and enclose the relevant annual fee. Practice Area: Please specify your 3 main areas of practice or interest e.g. commercial, criminal _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Signature_________________________________

Date_______________________

Women in Law Association of Solomon Islands Objects Email is our preferred method of contact with members as it is both timely and cost effective) Practice type (this information is confidential and will assist WILASI to represent you effectively):

Solicitor:


Employed
NGO

Judicial:


Judge

Other:


Academic


Student


Police Prosecutor

Employed:


Full-time


Part-time


Not employed


Government
Partner


Magistrate


Registrar


Corporate


Sole Practitioner


Tribunal
Judges Associate

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Membership Form

Employed:
Full-time


Part-time


Not employed

Membership Category

Annual fee




Full Member (other than government employee)

(valid until end of next AGM) $100




Full Member (government employee)

$50




Associate Member

$35

3.1

The objects of the Association are:

3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.6 3.1.7 3.1.8 3.1.9 3.1.10

3.1.11 3.1.12

to work towards equal opportunity and the advancement of women in the study and practice of law; to promote the rule of law and the principles of good governance; to further the understanding of and support for the legal and human rights of women; to work for the reform of the law and its administration, and for the advancement of social policy, in order to promote and protect the legal interests of women; to promote the participation of WILASI members in decision making processes; to provide a common meeting ground for WILASI members and facilitate social interaction amongst members; to work in partnership with other legal and non-legal professionals as well as other groups to advance, promote and protect women's interests; to facilitate the enhancement of the legal skills and professional development of its members and access to legal information; to affiliate with and maintain connections with the national and international associations with similar or relevant objectives; to promote the recognition and support of the Association’s aims and objectives by government agencies, private sector organisations, regional and international bodies and the public at large; to do all other things incidental or conducive to the attainment of the objects of the Association; and such other objects as the Association shall in General Meeting from time to time decide.

Be part of the growth and development of the Women In Law Association of Solomon Islands. Become a member today! Fill out this form and submit to the Joint Secretariat Office 3rd Floor Placemakers Building, if you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask June Maru on phone: 23399 or email [email protected].

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WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF SOLOMON ISLANDS

Contact us anytime you wish to make an enquiry, you are most welcome!!!

Women In Law Solomon Islands PO Box 1925 Honiara Solomon Islands Phone: 677 23399 Fax: 677 28409 E-mail: [email protected]

WILA congratulates the three new members elected to the Solomon Islands Bar Association in Executive positions.— , Ms Miriam Tafoa, Ms Constance Hemmer and Ms Kathleen Kohata.!!!!!!!!

Links to other Women’s Legal Societies. Fiji Women Lawyers Association:http://fiji-women-lawyers0.tripod.com/index.html New Zealand Law Society’s Women’s Consultation Group: http://www.nz-lawsoc.org.nz/wcg/indexframe.htm Wellington Women Lawyers Association:

www.wwla.org.nz

Australian Women Lawyers: www.womenlawyers.org.au Women Lawyers Association of New South Wales:www.womenlawyersnsw.org.au Victorian Women Lawyers:

www.vwl.asn.au/

Women Lawyers Association of Queensland: www.womenlawyersqld.com.au Tasmanian Women Lawyers Association: http://tasmanianwomenlawyers.trump.net.au/ National Women Justice Coalition:

www.nwjc.org.au/

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development:

www.apwld.org

European Women Lawyers’ Association:www.ewla.org Mega site for Women Lawyers Associations:

www.ewla.org/wf_content/23.html

I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victims. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.