As the three-day training on ‘Consensus Building Programme’ ended on Wednesday, RENEW says it is now in a better position to help clients- who are facing various forms of domestic violence to access both formal and informal justice system.
The Consensus Building Initiative is a type of alternative dispute resolution with regard to domestic violence before any form of violence.
“We are not a mediator as we do not have license to draw an agreement. We are not paralegal and we are not judge or a lawyer. We do not have any legal backgrounds,” Dr. Meenakshi Rai, Director of Department of Community Outreach under RENEW. “So the best option is Consensus Building initiative, where we can facilitate and inform people that there are two types of justice system, the formal and the informal justice system.”
According to the volunteers of RENEW from various district, the victims of domestic violence preferred RENEW over complex judicial processes for negotiations.
In the process of providing their service, RENEW had tough time dealing with such cases as most of the volunteers had limited knowledge on legal matters. Additionally, mediating cases involving domestic violence was considered as an offense.
So, the training helped volunteers of RENEW to interact with the officials of RBP, Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law and the Bhutan National Legal Institute.
“We have been dealing with several cases of domestic violence in our locality. Until this workshop, we were not aware of the certain boundaries. This training cleared our doubts,” said Pema Choki, Community Based Support System Volunteer.
Henceforth, every domestic violence cases falling under misdemeanor and below will be forwarded to RENEW for consensus building. RENEW will then handle cases and help find a solution by giving them the access to relevant justice system.
