Masters Dissertation

Zimbabwe’s recent economic meltdown has given rise to an increasing number of sexual attacks against minors who, as part of the healing process, require long term counselling, especially if they are forced to relive the horror of their experience when testifying against their alleged assailants in court. The writer of this dissertation, a member of […]

It was during her attendance on the Masters in Women’s Law Program at SEARCWL that the Kenyan magistrate who wrote this dissertation decided to find out the extent to which Kenyan judicial officers, like herself, were actually implementing what they had learnt during their training on the ‘Jurisprudence of Equality Program’ (‘JEP’). JEP is a […]

This study is an examination of the media’s contribution to eliminate gender based violence, in particular, rape, by properly informing the society of the incidences of rape and their wider socio-legal implications. It analyses the way rape cases are reported in newspapers and it assesses whether appropriate reporting of such cases acts as a deterrence […]

This dissertation explores Tanzania’s long-overdue need to pass into law specific Domestic Violence (‘DV’) legislation to protect the large percentage of its women who silently suffer its devastating and, sometimes, deadly consequences. Utilising an effective combination of methodologies (e.g., the Grounded and Human Rights Approaches), guided overall by the gender-sensitive Women’s Law Approach, the writer […]

This dissertation shows that the universal, but harmful, practice of removing small children from their mothers who are witnesses in criminal trials is not based on any law. The practice subsists despite the lack of proof that accompanied children actually materially disrupt proceedings. Focusing on the ‘lived realities’ of these usually poor and legally illiterate […]

This research, conducted by a policeman, shows that the failure to contain the crime of domestic violence (DV) femicide (the murder of women and girls in domestic relationships), despite the passing of the Domestic Violence Act (Chapter 5.16) (DVA) in 2006, is fundamentally linked to the failure of Zimbabwe’s deeply patriarchal society to understand, respond […]

This dissertation evaluates the quality of the Zambian government’s provision of rehabilitation services to child victims of defilement since the enactment of the AntiGender Based Violence Act, 2011. As a career public prosecutor, the researcher critically analyses the extent to which the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), a member of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), […]

Many Muslim women in Mombasa contribute to matrimonial property either directly or indirectly. An investigation into the various applicable international laws, Quran and Sunnah, institutions, semi autonomous social fields as well as comparative jurisprudence was done. An analysis was also conducted into the socio-cultural and economic factors that affect women in their pursuit of their […]

In a bid to fight the scourge of human trafficking, the Government of the Republic of Zambia ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air and further acceded to the Optional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women […]