Protecting Women's Legal Rights in Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic

Partners building collaborative approaches to gender violence and exploitation

In September 2001, Partners of the Americas launched a major women's legal rights project in Latin America and the Caribbean, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Women in Development. Project activities target Colombia, Dominican Republic and Mexico. Designed to inspire and harness creative approaches to community education and legal reform, the project:

1. Increased the capacity of women to understand and defend their legal rights;
2. Supported innovative programs that increase awareness of and protect women from rights violations in gender violence, with secondary emphasis on trafficking in women and sex tourism;
3. Generated constructive community responses to violations of women's legal rights;
4. Connected organizations that work on behalf of women's legal rights and promoting sharing of best practices.

The project offered nongovernmental organizations in the target countries intensive training, resources for innovative projects, and access to a professional hemispheric network for technical assistance. By generating dynamic relationships among regional NGOs, Partners achieved the following results:

• Three hands-on, participatory workshops in each of the target countries: During each three-day capacity building workshop, participants formed and managed mock coalitions, assessed allies and opponents, crafted advocacy strategies, and developed educational campaigns. Plenary sessions highlighted barriers to women's legal rights specific to each country and the innovative methods employed to overcome them. 

• Grants to 18 regional organizations for groundbreaking initiatives, such as:
  

  Colombia - Poor women in Bogotá are becoming grassroots legal advocates in their communities; police officers in Barranquilla are trained in recognizing women's legal rights; women displaced by Colombia's violence are learning about international laws that protect them; and Cali's public officials are exploring human rights norms that apply to their city's women.

  Mexico - A radio campaign in Oaxaca's Zapotec language is teaching women about their rights; indigenous and poor women are developing political proposals in Chihuahua to improve protection of women's lives; and lawyers and law students in the Yucatan peninsula are
  applying international norms to local cases where women's rights are violated.

  Dominican Republic - Sixty peasant women are educating their communities about the risks and realities of trafficking in women; families in five of Santo Domingo's low-income neighborhoods are receiving visits by community outreach workers to teach them about women's legal rights; and judges and lawyers are learning about how to apply international instruments to protect women's rights.

• Technical assistance to spread best practices throughout target countries: All interested nongovernmental organizations in the three target countries had access to a vast network of experienced professionals and organizations for assistance in improving women's legal rights protection. Partners supported visits by target organization representatives to outstanding programs anywhere in the hemisphere, including domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, police training campaigns, and others. Alternatively, experts traveled to the target country, sharing their successful strategies in public education and gender violence prevention. Technical assistance also included key skills, such as advocacy, coalition building, and proposal development.

Partners volunteers were vital to this work -- helping organize events, providing or identifying technical assistance, screening grant applications, and participating directly in project activities.

Partners also has extensive experience in promoting women's political participation. From 1998 to 2000, Partners offered partnerships and collaborating NGOs in Bolivia, Haiti and Peru the opportunity to develop community-based activities to increase the participation of women in governance and strengthen their role in the political process. Grants supported grassroots projects including capacity building for women in political office in rural Bolivia and advocacy training for young women in Haiti.