Three senior female lawyers who have been active in addressing women’s rights and domestic violence issues through their different working capacities became proud recipients of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) awards under the US Pacific Fellows Women’s Rights Program.
The program is fully funded by the US government and is hoped to run for six weeks in Washington DC finishing on the 20th of next month.
Among the three selected, two of them are PLOs (Principal Legal Officers) from the Office of the Solicitor General Mrs Grace Nindil-Awesa, Ms Josephine Advent and Ms Emma Wurr from the Public Solicitor’s office.
All these three female government lawyers received same awards and are representing PNG at the moment. They were amongst nine others chosen from the Asia-Pacific Region to participate in the program.
The Secretary for the Department of Justice and Attorney General, Dr Lawrence Kalinoe also congratulated the three of their achievements especially in receiving the prestigious fellowship awards from the US State Department.
“I would like to commend them for the awards received as it reflects on their performances as outstanding women lawyers in the Public Service and who will continue to make a strong contribution in this area and to uphold the Rule of Law.”
While congratulating them Dr Kalinoe also encouraged them to be good ambassadors, not only for the department but for the nation as a whole.
These women lawyers had contributed significantly towards fighting gender equality and family protection in the country.
For her practical training, Mrs Awesa wrote a paper titled ‘Women in Politics in PNG,’ which had been one of a range of reference papers used to advocate on gender equality reform in the country recently.
While Ms Advent has been a key player behind the most recent Family Protection Bill which is now finalised and ready for submission before the National Executive Council (NEC).
Throughout the program, they would be working with organisations and the US government to gain a greater understanding of international legal standards, different US practices and techniques used on behalf of the women in the legal advocacy and assistance fields, and basic governance principles and practices in the US civil society institutions.
Via – Post Courier Online.