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Abstract:
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This paper is examining how legal empowerment in Malawi can be achieved in the context of legal pluralism. It describes how legal pluralism came about in Malawi and juxtaposes this situation against the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi which arguably promotes and protects rights of women in Malawi.
The paper the looks at how the following points do somehow oppress women‟s rights in Malawi despite the existence of a progressive Constitution.
(a) laws,
(b) customary laws,
(c) norms and
(d) practices in themselves
It then shows an example of how the law and rights in themselves can be used to promote women‟s rights using project ran by Women and Law in Southern Africa in which women are taught how to read and write using a rights based approach.
Malawi‟s Approach in the three villages in Mangochi has therefore been to use REFLECT as a teaching methodology because it is participatory and democratic, and increases self confidence and self respect for the women. Although the technical content of adult learning is important, the process of teaching is more critical and REFLECT is interactive and more horizontal in organisation. REFLECT is a short name for Regenerated Freirean Literacy.
The REFLECT project highlights the ways in which the law and rights as a strategy can be used to operationalise rights as per the Constitution and transcend some of oppressive processes and systems within legal pluralistic models.
When one considers that the Commission on the Legal empowerment for the poor looks at it as the fact that individuals must take part in a process where` they can have the following so that they reduce poverty.
(a) more security,
(b) less vulnerability,
(c) protected livelihoods with more influence over their own situation,
(d) greater potential for increasing their income |