Action Aid Myanmar

Promoting Access to Justice: Towards a Violence-Free Environment for Women and Girls

Focus area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans

Little is known of the prevalence and types of violence encountered by women in Myanmar. The lack of available data, compounded by the absence of institutional mechanisms to prevent and respond to these abuses, makes addressing gender-based violence in the country particularly challenging.

Photo: FB/ActionAidMyanmar

Against this backdrop, ActionAid Myanmar will implement a comprehensive initiative that intends to build on a successful pilot project conducted in 2012 in urban periphery areas of Yangon. The initiative will improve service-delivery, with a special emphasis on promoting access to justice through the provision of legal aid services for rural women. Prevention will also be a key focus through the capacity-development of youth leaders and young people at the community level and the establishment of creative strategies around partnerships, including with the private sector and the media, at national and community levels. The initiative will also conduct a participatory community‐based research study as a means to feed into the ongoing consultation process for the development of the national anti‐Violence against Women legislation and draft disability law.