KARACHI, June 27: An overburdened judicial system, causing delays in disposing of of cases in subordinate courts and enhancing misery of complainants, particularly of those women , who have violence-related complaints, has intensified the need for an alternative dispute-resolution mechanism.

This was resolved at the provincial plenary workshop, jointly organized by the UNDP, CIET, DFID and the Sindh Women Development Department, to review and provide feedback on policy recommendations of the findings of "Social Audit of Abuse Against Women (SAAAW)," undertaken by the CIET across the country, a statement said on Sunday.

The participants, including senior government officials, women-right activists, representative of NGOs, lawyers and health care professionals, acknowledged that gender violence was a global problem and so was the failure to address it effectively through the formal criminal justice system.

The situation was attributed to the fact that a few cases of gender violence, including those of physical aggression, sexual abuse or harassment, were reported to the police, of which fewer reached the courts and very few end in convictions.

It was observed with concern on the occasion that despite clear provisions in the Local Government Ordinance-2001 that Insaaf Committees, in each union council, within 30 days of their election would constitute the three-member bodies, to be called 'Musalihat Anjuman,' yet despite the passage of more than two years very few UCs across the country had these bodies.

As envisaged, these bodies appeared to provide an efficient mechanism for dispute resolution and redressal of injustices committed against people, especially the women, through mediation, conciliation and arbitration.

These envisaged bodies under the SLGO-2001 could also deal with such disputes which were already in a court of law, however, every settlement in such a case was subject to the approval of the court concerned.

A remarkable feature of these committees is that courts can also refer cases for settlement to them through the union nazims and can make such settlement the rule of the court.

Dr Socorro L Reyes of the Gender Support Programme of UNDP, Pakistan, speaking on the occasion, reiterated that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) was not intended to replace the formal justice system, but complemented and supported judicial reform.

Earlier, Sindh Information Secretary Mehtab Rashdi called for an integrated approach to address the issue of gender violence.- APP