In the Court of Women: The Lahore Tribunal on Violence Against Women 1993-94,

Simorgh Collective
published by The Simorgh Women's Collective and the Asian Women's Human Rights Council,1995

This report is a description of the proceedings of the Lahore tribunal on violence against women 1993-94 entitled 'In the Court of Women'. It was the first in a series of tribunals planned by the Asian Women's Human Rights Council. The purpose of the tribunal was to critique and redress imbalances in the parameters of existing human rights discourse where the issue of women's rights as human rights and specifically the rights and problems of third world women are highlighted; and to create an awareness regarding the discrimination and injustices that women face at different levels of their lives, and by so doing create public opinion as a first step towards changing the condition and status of women in the region. The report provides public testimonies and papers on the different forms of violence to which women were subjected, along with the in-depth discussions on the many faces of violence, leading up to strategies and action for change.

Key words: Tribunal, Women, Violence Against Women, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Public Testimonies, and Patriarchy.