Speaker of Malawi Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara has encouraged women lawyers to continue taking a leading role in breaking the barriers that hinder the rights of women and girls in the country.
Hara made the remarks during Women Lawyers Association (WLA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe.
She said WLA should continue its good work of defending and protecting rights of vulnerable women and girls as one way to break the barriers.
“Vulnerable women and girls need to be protected at all levels and WLA has been the barrier breaker because laws guide humanity in our society,” said Hara.
She also encouraged Women Lawyers to remain vigilant as they did during Nsundwe, Covid-19 and Presidential election cases where they defended vulnerable women and girls.
She also told them to always remember and protect girl child education especially in villages.
In her remarks, the new WLA President Chisomo Nyemba said people in the country should expect a lot under her leadership especially advocating campaign in defending Vulnerable women in the society.
She also said her team would like to make sure that the general public trust lawyers in the country considering that of late there has been lack of public trust on them.
She further admitted that WLA has been facing problem when it comes to handling pro-bono cases.
On this issue, she assured people and all stakeholders that WLA is currently engaging Legal Aid Bureau through Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to address the challenges.
“WLA will not rest as long as women and girls rights are infringed such as through human trafficking to other countries as it has been reported before,” she added.
The meeting attracted notable people and individuals in the society such as ACB Director General Martha Chizuma, Malawi Human Rights Commission executive secretary Habiba Osman, Ombudsman Grace Malera and Fiona Kalemba who is Clerk of Parliament and many others.
WLA was established over 30 years ago and is comprised of Female lawyers, magistrates, judges, paralegals and law students.
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