Violence against women and access to justice

Synopsis of the research work that I completed on the violence against women and access to justice few months before.
The violence against women is important to justice; women having problems with access to justice is more so. The culture of society is the way of life of its members. Nepali societies stand upon moral and cultural values. Any one member of a family falling victim to sexual assault is a source of stress for the whole family and community. The relationship between the victim and family members and communities turn stressful and often end up in disasters. The societies stigmatize, intimidate, coerce and exclude these victims instead of providing protection. Many victims fear to report the crime to shun such social behaviors. Even if some choose to do so for legal justice, they encounter multiple problems in the process. On the other hand, many such cases which are under investigation are either dropped or neutralized because of financial or political pressures. Therefore, quite often, rape and sexual assaults are considered victimless offences.
The access of women victims to justice is not properly safeguarded in Nepal. The formal processes of the criminal justice system have been the most vulnerable to critique from the perspective of victims. The majority of victims are of the opinion that they are largely “forgotten or abandoned” in the justice delivery process. Major obstacles continue to prevent most victims from seeking justice. The existing criminal justice system is criticized for failure to addressing a range of needs and rights of victim. This system has not been able to deliver even the minimum services to the victims; the system behaves in a negative way. The criminal justice system treats victims not as human but as “piece of evidence” only.
The rape trials are widely criticized for the insensitivity and repeated and persistent questioning of complaints about minor details and inconsistencies and the use of cross examination strategies designed to show that the victims did not react as ‘real’ victims would have reacted. The defendant lawyers always think the victims are playing one or the other ‘naatak’— drama. In such situations, the victims choose to silently suffer the trauma and pain for the whole life. They lose access to political, social, and economic opportunities. They are further pushed to the precipice of tragedy. One of the rape victims related her experience: “I feel lonely and isolated. I’ve always had so much to say, and I’ve never said it. What’s hindered me the most is being so skilled at being silent. Incest has had so much to do with being silenced and silencing myself.”