Violence against women and access to justice

Abstract

This paper analyses the performance of Precautionary Family Courts of the City of La Plata, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The chosen approach goes beyond the mere procedural aspects, as it includes the reports of the plaintiffs. This text is also a reflection upon the administration of justice at Family Courts and upon the design of public policies that deal with the issue of violence against women from a genre perspective. The observations focus on some features involved in the access to justice such as: the different phases of the proceedings at courts, the design of laws, the legal interpretations, and the execution of the verdict by the competent national authority. It is remarkable the active role of organized women and various social segments about : their commitment to the issue, bringing up new themes in the political agenda, their great influence on the work of Congress, their constant work as overseers of public policies and as keen critics of those practices which are deviations from the original intentions.

Summing up, this paper focuses on the functions of Law in a specific and larger context comprising the legal framework, the social discourse and the process which recreates and mirrors social meanings by means of qualified social actors such as legislators and the media.