Her Justice FINAL REPORT
26 April-2017 Through
25 April-2018
Promoting the Rule of Law Project Grant Number: PRL-G-007-006
Implemented by: Jeepyah Civil Society Development Organization (JCSDO) Her Justice Project 09425279752 22nd , Myingtharyar Quarter, Mawlamying, Mon Stae.
Accomplishments
Milestone A 1. Fully Executed Grant Agreement accepted and acknowledged by the Project;
2. Updated Detailed Monthly Work Plan for all activities, including dates and locations when possible, and invitees lists as available, accepted and approved by Project
3. Recruitment Plan, including position descriptions, list of media outlets to post job announcements, and schedule for job announcements, interviews, and hiring, accepted and approved by the Project;
4. Operations Plan to establish and equip JCSDO’s Safe House, including criteria for office space selection, timeline for visiting properties, selecting an office, negotiating and signing lease, equipment procurement plan, and schedule to establish policies, procedures and operations including inquiry hotline, accepted and approved by the Project;
5. Attendance of key organization staff at Project-sponsored USAID Rules &RegulationsTraining;
6. Letter from Finance Staff stating organizational bank account information, account number, and signatories, accepted and acknowledged by the Project;
7. Draft Legal Aid Case Selection Criteria, accepted and approved by the Project;
8. List of existing cases to be supported through Promoting the Rule of Law Project funding, accepted and acknowledged by the Project;
9. Draft Safe House Client Selection Criteria, accepted and approved by the Project;
Milestone B 1. Copy of executed Safe House lease, accepted and acknowledged by the Project;
The lease for the Safe House was signed on April 26th, 2017 and was approved at that time by Nai Win Zaw, Director of JCSDO.
2. Copies of newly hired staff CVs and employment agreements, accepted and acknowledged by the Project;
One new staff member was hired on May 1st, 2017 for a one-year contract to assist with the project as a Lawyer. The successful applicant was Yu Nandar Myint and her CV and employment agreement was approved by Nai Win Zaw at the time of her hire.
3. List of selected paralegal trainees, including names, township locations, and contact information, accepted and approved by the Project;
A total of twenty women were selected as paralegal trainees from sixteen villages spread across nine townships in Mon state (Please see attached list for names, township locations, and contact information of the trainees).
4. Draft Paralegal Workshop 1 agenda, curriculum, training materials, pre-test, post-test, evaluation form, handouts and CV of external resource person, accepted and approved by the Project;
The above items were drafted by Daw Hla Hla Yee, Trainer, and approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director, on June 22nd, 2017 (Please see attached items).
5. Legal Aid Case Report using Project-provided template for cases receiving legal services – free legal advice and referral cases, free legal aid/court representation, counseling and Safe House – accepted and approved by the Project;
To date, there have been a total of Twenty-Two cases handled by the Project:
There have been eleven genders based violence (GBV) cases and rape case handled by the Safe House, which have involved the provision of counseling and psychosocial support. Two of the survivors came from Koung Zone township, 8 from Mawlamyine, one from Paung township, one from Kyaimakyoe township, and one from Mudon township. None of the eleven survivors wished to pursue their case through the police or courts.
There have been an additional Eleven rape cases which were handled outside of the Safe House. Four of the five cases have involved counseling of survivors, provision of legal advice, and referral to police. Of these cases, one survivor was from Ye township, one from Mudon township, one from Mawlamyine, and one from Kyaikmayoe township. All of these survivors were admitted to hospital and were thereafter directly referred to the Department of Social Welfare; this precluded The Project from providing legal representation to survivors. With the fifth rape case from Kyaikmayoe, the survivor’s case is currently being processed through the police. Her case will eventually be heard in court and she will receive legal aid through the Project.
These cases were all approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director, as they arose.
6. Draft Legal Awareness Sessions curriculum, including agendas, content, tools, handouts and other deliverable materials for each topic, accepted and approved by the Project;
The above items were drafted by Mi Yu Nandar Myint, Lawyer, and Mi Ah More Chan, Assistant Program Coordinator, and were approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director, on June 16th, 2017 (Please see attached items). .
7. Updated Detailed Monthly Work Plan for all activities, including dates and locations when possible, and invitee lists as available, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please see the current Detailed Monthly Work Plan, as attached.
8. Milestone Technical Report and Request for Reimbursement Financial Report, accepted and approved by the Project.
Both reports were approved on June 22nd, 2017 by Nai Win Zaw, JCSDO Director. Please find the latter attached.
Milestone C 1. Final Paralegal Workshop I agenda, signed participant lists, training materials, pre/post test results, training evaluations, training report and 3-5 photos, accepted and approved by the Project
Total of 20 participants for Paralegal Workshop I agenda, signed participant lists, training materials, pre/post test results, training evaluations, training report and 3-5 photos, accepted and see it in attach file. The participants were from approved by the Project Mudon Township, Thanbyuzayut Township, Ye Township, Kyaikmayoe Township, Mawlamyine, Chaung Zone and Paung township. So, it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw .
2. Legal Aid Case Report using Project-provided template for cases receiving legal services – free legal advice and referral cases, free legal aid/court representation, counselling
To date, there have been a total of forty Three cases for counselling, (18) for free legal advice and referral cases, (11) for free legal aid and (12 ) for safe house handled by the Project. The survivors came from Koung Zone township,Mawlamyine, Paung township, Kyaimakyoe township, and Mudon township.
We had done one case in this milestone, Defendant had to stay (9) Years in the Jail. These cases were all approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director, as they arose
3. Final Consultation Meeting agenda, signed participant lists, Meeting materials, Meeting minute and 3-5 photos, accepted and approved by the Project;
Consultation meeting agenda, signed participant lists, Meeting materials, Meeting minute and 3-5 photos, see it in attach file. We had completed Consultation meeting at Taranar village Kyaikamayoe Township. The participants were community leader and village administered body and village headman. The consultation meeting was approved by Nai Win Zaw Director
4. Final agenda, signed participant lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results for at least 1 Legal Awareness Session, accepted and approved by the Project;
We had done Legal Awareness section at Kaw Cha village, Ye township which is provide by Mi Yu Nandar Myint, Lawyer, and Mi Ah More Chan and final agenda, signed lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results please see it in attach file and approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director
5. Draft Paralegal Workshop II agenda, curriculum, training materials, pre-test, post-test, evaluation form, handouts and CV of external resource person, accepted and approved by the Project;
For Draft Paralegal Workshop II agenda, curriculum, training materials, pre-test, post-test, evaluation form, handouts and CV of external resource person by Daw Hla Hla Yee Trainer, and approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director, on second week of October 2017. The trainer was not support for curriculum. (Please see attached items) and it was approved by Mi Cherry Soe Program Director
6. Updated Detailed Monthly Work Plan for all activities, including dates and locations when possible, and invitee lists as available, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please see the current Detailed Monthly Work Plan, as attached, it was approved by Mi Cherry Soe Program Director.
7. Milestone Technical Report and Request for Reimbursement Financial Report, accepted and approved by the Project.
Both reports were approved on September 25nd, 2017 by Nai Win Zaw, JCSDO Director. Please find the latter attached.
Milestone D 1. Legal Aid Case Report using Project-provided template for cases receiving legal services – legal advice and referral cases, court representation, counselling and Safe House - accepted and approved by the Project;
To date, there have been a total of cases for counselling, (20) for free legal advice and referral cases, (10) for free legal aid, ( 8) for safe house and (5) for court representation handled by the Project. The survivors came from Koung Zone township,Mawlamyine, Paung township, Kyaimakyoe township, Mudon, Thanbyuzayut and Ye township. So it was approved by Program Direct Mi Cherry Soe.
2. Final Paralegal Workshop II agenda, signed participant lists, training materials, pre/post test results, training evaluations, training report and 3-5 photos accepted and approved by the project;
Total of 20 participants for Paralegal Workshop I agenda, signed participant lists, training materials, pre/post test results, training evaluations, training report and 3-5 photos, accepted and see it in attach file. The participants were from approved by the Project Mudon Township, Thanbyuzayut Township, Ye Township, Kyaikmayoe Township, Mawlamyine, and Thanbyuzayut township. So, it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw
3. Final agenda, signed participant lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results for at least 2 Legal Awareness Sessions accepted and approved by the Project;
We had done 2 times for Legal Awareness section at Ani village, Thanbyuzayut township and Nepadaw village Mudon Township which were provide by Mi Yu Nandar Myint, Lawyer, and Mi Ah More Chan and final agenda, signed lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results please see it in attach file and approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director
4. Draft Annual Report, following approved Outline, and Distribution Plan, including target government officials, CSOs, and members of the public, accepted and approved by the Project;
Draft Annual Report, following approved Outline, and Distribution Plan are see in attach file. The target group that we are going to distribute our annual report are Government department, CSO, Partner Group, NGO, INGO, Youth Group and women Group. So it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw
5. Mid-term Performance Monitoring Report; Please kindly see Mid- Term Performance Report, as attach, it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw.
6. Updated Detailed Monthly Work Plan for all activities, including dates and locations when possible, and invitees lists as available, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please see the current Detailed Monthly Work Plan, as attached, it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw.
7. Milestone Technical Report and Request for Reimbursement Financial Report accepted and approved by the Project.
Both reports and Reimbursement Financial Report were approved on December 25nd, 2017 by Nai Win Zaw, JCSDO Director. Please find the latter attached.
Milestone E 1. Legal Aid Case Report using Project-provided template for cases receiving legal services – legal advice and referral cases, court representation, counselling and Safe House - accepted and approved by the Project;
To date, there have been a total of cases for counselling, (20) for free legal advice and referral cases, (10) for free legal aid, ( 3) for safe house and (5) for court representation handled by the Project. The survivors came from Koung Zone township,Mawlamyine, Paung township, Kyaimakyoe township, Mudon, Thanbyuzayut and Ye township. So, it was approved by Program Direct Mi Cherry Soe.
2. Final agenda, signed participant lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results for at least 1 Legal Awareness Sessions accepted and approved by the Project;
We had done one times for Legal Awareness section at Than Ka Laung village, Kyaikmaywar township which were provide by Mi Yu Nandar Myint, Lawyer, and Mi Ah More Chan and final agenda, signed lists, content, tools, handouts, other deliverable materials and pre/post test results please see it in attach file and approved by Mi Cherry Soe, Program Director
3. Final hard copy and electronic versions of Annual Report in Mon, Burmese and English, and final distribution list including government officials, CSOs, and members of the public, accepted and approved by Director Nai Win Zaw
Annual report will public and please see it in attachment file who and which organization we are going to public.
4. Updated Detailed Monthly Work Plan for all activities, including dates and locations when possible, and invitees lists as available, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please see the current Detailed Monthly Work Plan, as attached, it was approved by Director Nai Win Zaw.
5. Milestone Technical Report and Request for Reimbursement Financial Report accepted and approved by the Project.
Both reports and Reimbursement Financial Report were approved on March 25nd, 2018 by Nai Win Zaw, JCSDO Director. Please find the latter attached.
Milestone F 1. Legal Aid Case Report using Project-provided template for new legal service cases, detailed by service type – legal advice and referral cases (cumulative total 40), free legal aid/court representation (cumulative total 20), counselling (cumulative total 80) and Safe House (cumulative total 24) -accepted and approved by the Project;
To date, there have been a total of cases for (2) counselling, (1) for free legal advice and referral cases, (2) for safe house handled by the Project. The survivors came from Paung township, Kyaimakyoe township and Ye township. So it was approved by Program Direct Mi Cherry Soe.
2. Legal Awareness Sessions report detailing total participants, challenges faced in building legal awareness in communities, recommendations for future legal awareness activities - accepted and approved by the Project; Please kindly see the report in attach file. It was accepted and approved by Program Director Mi Cherry Soe.
3. Legal Aid Services Analysis Report detailing trends, challenges, opportunities and lessons learned in cases served. Recommendations for legal aid management may also be included. Report must be accepted and approved by the Project;
Please kindly see the report in attach file. It was accepted and approved by Program Director Mi Cherry Soe
4. Final Performance Monitoring Report for all activities completed during project period, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please kindly see the report in attach file. It was accepted and approved by Program Director Mi Cherry Soe
5. Final Inventory Report, accepted and approved by the Project; and
Please kindly see the report in attach file. It was accepted and approved by Director Nai Win Zaw
6. Final Technical Report, including final Milestone Report and Request for Reimbursement, accepted and approved by the Project;
Please kindly see the report in attach file. It was accepted and approved by Director Nai Win Zaw.
Challenges
1. We found that we were constrained by the budget, and could not provide sufficient counseling to people outside of Mawlamyine or security for our workers while working cases or providing counseling. The budget allocated per case was insufficient, as each case took around 6 months, requiring 4 appointments per month in that time. 2. Obtaining official documents from courts and police was a significant challenge for us that inhibited our ability to meet the reporting requirements of USAID. Additionally, acquiring documents proved costlier than planned, and the budget for this was insufficient. 3. We found the lawyers were overburdened by the caseload, and would have benefitted from additional legal service provision. 4. We are unprepared to deal with an increase in demand for our services and are scrambling to secure more resources to be able to scale up.
Overcoming the challenges
1. Where we found that the planned budget was insufficient, we attempted to discuss the problem with USAID, and then funding was found from fundraising among staff. 2. When our lawyers had more work than they could handle, we sought out additional legal help for cases. 3. After becoming aware of security threats, we mitigated the threat by establishing a system of communication and notification to let each other know of safe arrivals and departures. 4. Documents were procured through a great deal of time and patience, repeated visits to offices and talking with officials. 5. When we were overburdened with cases we referred new cases to other places for services.
Findings
Findings from Safehouse activity • When the government discovered we were providing shelter services, we found them referring women to us instead of taking responsibility to provide help themselves.
• Insufficient budgeting meant we weren’t able to provide some of the very basic human needs of our residents, like transportation and medical needs
• While counseling was successful for the residents, many of them had too much free time and could have gained increased self-reliance from livelihood and life skills trainings while with us.
• More children ended up staying in our safe house than we were prepared for, including newborn infants, the results of pregnancies which we were also unprepared to handle. These events combined with the inflexibility of the USAID budget agreement resulted in JCSDO members having to fundraise personally from their network to help cover the extra costs.
Finding from casework and legal proceedings • Obtaining documents such as transcripts from the court proved much more difficult and costly than anticipated. They were often reluctant to provide receipts, and usually asked for tea money. There was a learning curve in this.
• In court, powerful, well-connected and wealthy perpetrators lied during court proceedings despite their communities in general knowing the truth. We heard lies that were easily proven to be untrue. Unlike in other countries, there is no mechanism that punishes people found to be lying in court, so many survivors experienced exacerbated injustice watching perpetrators get away with telling blatant lies in court. We discovered that a law exists to deal with this, but that it is rarely enforced.
• We were unsatisfied with the compensation rewarded with guilty verdicts. Medical bills and legal fees were not compensated and sentences were too short for some very serious crimes.
• When reporting cases to law enforcement, we felt that officers had a poor understanding of sexual assault and tended to downplay the seriousness of the crime, even changing charges from rape to less serious offenses. In some cases, they altered wording so that the story of survivors no longer made sense.
• We struggled to find eyewitnesses for our cases to testify in favors of the survivors. Eyewitnesses did not feel safe testifying in court for fear of retaliation from the perpetrator or his family or friends,
Sustainability
Within the communities where legal awareness training and paralegal workshops were held, the community members themselves have increased capacity to address cases of violence against women, and have been empowered to take action against such violence. This is a change in mindset that has a lasting impact on societal attitudes about rape, domestic violence and other types of violence.
The instances of successful conviction of violent offenders serves as a precedent to help bring others to justice, and to show that there are consequences to such behavior. The publication of the book alone has met our goal of compiling our experiences, and the fact that there are people in powerful positions looking forward to reading it is very important
Activity Report
Insert information into the below charts based on the activities completed during the reporting period, from the completion of Milestone B. If possible, please include quotations from conference/training participants and photographs from the activities.
Meetings / Workshops/ Trainings/ Forum/ Campaigns/ Events
Number of participants Topic Discussed/ Type of Date(s) Title of events Location/Venue Follow-up/ action point Topic taught Participants Men Women
Legal Aid Services
Time Duration Types of services (Court representation, Number of Township legal assistances, safe house) From To Cases Men Women December 25 April 25 Safe House 2 2 Paung Township
December 25 April 25 counselling 2 2 Paung Township
December 25 April 25 Free legal advice and Referral case 1 1 Kyaikmayaw Township
IEC materials Distributed to Newsletter, Date Topics covered Language used pamphlets, etc ) Number distributed CSO Govt organization Individuals
Survey/ data collection Sample size (# study of Types of information Type of study participants Start Date End Date Study Objectives participants) Study location collected (FSW, lawyers Men Women
Evaluation Report
1.What was the overall goal of each training/workshop/activity?
Legal Awareness Sessions (4) – To train and prepare local communities for dealing with cases of rights violations
Consultation meetings - to build trust between WEP and the communities and to identify women and girls who might be in need of legal aid
Paralegal workshop (2) – to transfer some of the basic skills necessary to navigate legal structures in relation to GBV cases
Case Management and court documentation – To better understand and show the pervasiveness of barriers to access to justice for women and girls
Report Publication and Advocacy – to publish and display our findings to use in advocacy to local authorities, justice system actors and the national-level parliament.
Safe House – to provide a safe place for women who are under threat of violence or are escaping violent homes. To shelter women while their cases were being brought to court
2.Please provide a description of workshops/trainings/activities and how related to the goal in #1.
Legal Awareness Sessions – These sessions were held in each of our target townships: Mudon, Ye, Kyaikmayaw and Thanbuzyat. The one-day workshops presented basic legal awareness information to youth groups, women leaders and community leaders. Participants learned about Myanmar’s laws on GBV, marriage and international norms through CEDAW. The trainings also discussed cultural impacts on women, and some challenges in reducing GBV. Through this training, the goal was met to better prepare active members of communities to deal with cases of GBV and to advocate for an end to GBV.
Consultation Meetings – JCSDO has held many consultation meetings with our beneficiaries, and we are experienced in gaining the trust of village officials to run our projects. In our consultation meeting in this project we formed a good partnership with the village headman, and were able to introduce the goals and activities of the project. Activities in the village would be difficult to carry out without the leader’s support, so this stage is crucial to all of those that follow. This step also directly involves village leaders in the handling of GBV cases and engages them to contribute to handling the cases and taking steps to end GBV. We were successful in our goal to build up strong relationships with the village leaders we consulted.
Paralegal workshops – These were held in Mawlamyine and participants were brought in from Mudon, Ye, Thanbyuzat, Kyaikmayaw, Koungzone townships. Women in these workshops came to understand the justice system and laws related to women. With new skills and understanding they returned to their villages with a mission to raise awareness about these laws, how they can be used and to act as advocates to end GBV. They were even to provide legal support and advice to survivors of violence, such as how to raise a complaint, press charges, and how to contact JCSDO for help from the safehouse or from the lawyer. Having women with the knowledge and skills to navigate the legal system for GBV cases readily available at the village level has been achieved.
Case Management and Court Documentation – This activity was both one of the most challenging but one of the most rewarding. With the help of two lawyers, survivors of violence who lacked the resources to bring their
cases to court were supported. For the first time, JCSDO was seeing cases through from beginning to end. This involved trials and multiple courtroom visits. We discovered quickly that obtaining the required court documentation would be much more difficult than we had expected, and it consumed a great deal of time, energy and money. However, we were able to handle 20 cases as planned, with 7 successfully resulting in convictions of the perpetrator. Our goal to better understand and showcase the difficulty of bringing violence against women cases to court has been successful, and our frustrating experiences in the end support our claims that the system must be changed. Going through the arduous process has also given us a valuable opportunity to improve our capacity to provide services to survivors, and has made us experts on the flaws in the legal system. The successful convictions have also created the positive effect of showing that there are consequences to assaulting women in Mon state.
Report Publication and Advocacy – The booklet has been produced, although unfortunately not arrive in time for our first high-level advocacy meeting at Mon State Parliament. The Parliamentarian we met with is looking forward to having the book in hand, and encouraged us to return when it is prepared. Other high-level meeting are planned in the coming weeks. The publication of the book alone has met our goal of compiling our experiences, and the fact that there are people in powerful positions looking forward to reading it is very important
Safe House – Overall, we consider the Safe House to be a great success. It provided an important service to women in need in an area with a general lack of such services. We were able to provide the basic, planned upon safe house services, but we met many unplanned for demands. In the future we must be better prepared for women who arrive with children, and women who arrive pregnant. This project budget provided no space for such expensive and urgent issues. We were able to meet the goal of providing a safe place to women who needed it, but in the future, we want to expand this goal to also include meeting more of their needs while providing them a safe place.
3.Summarize the findings of the activity evaluations?
We read Milestone Achievement as we plan and for safe house and counseling got more target that we plan. We found that women in the various villages were very interested in learning more about laws relating to GBV, and were very eager to participate in activities we provided. Our safehouse’s reputation has grown and filled a need that even the Department of Social Welfare at the state parliament has been referring cases to us. Our experiences with case management and court documentation proved valuable though challenging, and we are now in a better position to navigate this system and help others understand to navigate it. The advocacy booklet brings attention to the many challenges survivors of violence face, and demonstrates some of the extreme negative cases that can take place when GBV is underreported, ignored and in some cases even tolerated.
4.Please include quotations from pre- and post-evaluations and relevant statistical data.
Legal Awareness Training 1- 20 respondents answered 12.5% of 10 questions correctly, and 45% of the answers correctly in the post-test.
2- In this pre-test, 13.3% of questions were answered correctly by 21 participants, with 44.3% answered correctly in the post-test.
3- 13.5% of the questions were answered correctly by 17 participants. In the post-test, 51.8% of questions were answered correctly.
4- In the pre-test, 18% of 10 questions were answered correctly by 32 participants. In the post-test, 27% of the answers were correct
In all 4 cases, we saw the biggest increase in the question “Is it okay for women to be out at nighttime in Myanmar?” The pre-test of this question had only one respondent answering yes, and 10 respondents answering yes in the post test. A question with little improvement in all 4 trainings was related to when/if it is acceptable for a man to hit his female relatives. There were otherwise variances between which questions improved and which did not.
Paralegal Workshops
1 – In the pre-test, 19.5% of 20 questions were answered correctly by 20 participants. In the post test, 93.8% of questions were answered correctly.
Biggest improvement # 11 – how many conventions has the Myanmar government signed?
Smallest improvement # 18 – what is it official legal name for when an engagement to be married is broken?
2. In the pre-test, 25% of 20 questions were answered correctly by 20 participants. In the post-test, 94% were answered correctly.
Biggest improvement #2 – How many trials are usually required to finish a court case in Myanmar?
Least improvement #18 – What is the official legal name for when an engagement to be married is broken off?