Held on the 15th May 2019
at 5:30pm to
7pm
In Indonesia and Australia, women initiate the majority of family law cases. They may do this to formalise their marriage or divorce, to seek custody of children and financial support to raise them, or to live free from violence within the home. Therefore, supporting women’s access to family courts is an important dimension of promoting women’s security. This presentation examines how a research collaboration spanning 14 years between the Indonesian women’s civil society organisation, Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga - PEKKA, the Supreme Court of Indonesia and the Family Court of Australia, has contributed to a million more women accessing the family law courts for Muslim citizens in Indonesia (Peradilan Agama) in the last decade. The discussion will touch on the policy and funding changes that enabled this increased access to paralegals and to the family courts and how this has changed women's lives and those of their children.
The presentation will also consider recent developments in funding modalities for large-scale programmes with a social development impact. Social impact bonds and other forms of Impact Investments are now being considered together with grant funding to inject capital at the scale necessary to effect significant social change in programmes around the world. The presentation will reflect on how changes in the funding landscape might leverage regional efforts to address complex problems around women’s access to paralegal and legal assistance as well as access to family law courts.
The session will conclude with comments on the challenges of reaching the most-disadvantaged groups in Tasmania by:
- Susie Winter, Acting Director, Legal Aid Commission Tasmania
- Professor Margaret Otlowski, Professor of Law and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Culture and Wellbeing), University of Tasmania
About the Presenter
Cate Sumner is Director of Law & Development Partners and has worked in Indonesia since 2005 as an adviser on access to justice and legal identity programmes, most recently as a Senior Adviser on the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 www.aipj.or.id. Her career spans working with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in Cairo, the United Nations as both a Refugee Affairs Officer in the Gaza Strip and as Legal Officer in Jerusalem, and the International Development Law Organisation in their offices in Manila and Sydney.
This event is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Law & Development Partners, Faculty of Law and the Asia Institute Tasmania
