Any form of violence is considered a serious crime and cannot be mediated. However, RENEW (Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women) and its community based support system volunteers have been shouldering the role of mediation in settling the domestic violence cases so far.
To address this contradiction and build up links between the RENEW and the Royal Bhutan Police, a three-day workshop- “Consensus Building Training” is underway in the capital.
According to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act 2013, any form of violence should be reported to the police first and then has to undergo several judicial processes.
But in case of the RENEW, they are mandated to help the victims of domestic violence and sexual gender based violence. And while rendering the service, they often land up mediating various forms of violence related cases at the community level unlawfully.
However, RENEW officials say the section 22 of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act states the police have the authority to forward some cases for mediation, depending upon the intensity of the crime.
So in line with this, RENEW came up with Consensus Building Initiative. It is a process of alternate dispute resolution before any form of mediation. The police can now get in touch with the RENEW’s community volunteers and then forward the cases to the relevant stakeholders to resolved mutually.
Since the signing of Bilateral Memorandum of Understanding between RENEW and the RBP, it is the first consensus building training for the police personnel. They are now planning to involve the local leaders and paralegal service providers in similar training in near future.
The RENEW in collaboration with Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law and Bhutan National Legal Institute organised the training that ends tomorrow.
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