LACC has been providing free legal aid and counselling services to the needy women victims, as a part of its efforts in contributing to ending violence against women for past twelve years. In 1999, it established the Women's Rights Helpline project to extend its services to a large number of women.

Women in Nepal are increasingly subjected to violence, sexual abuse, rape, exploitation, battering, divorce, domestic violence and trafficking. They are subject to various discrimination at all level of social and national life. The woman victims of violence, rape, sexual exploitation, abuses, polygamy, battering, forced divorce and trafficking, needed to contact other women related supportive services to seek justice and solve their problems.

In view of the need to offer free legal, counselling, mediation services and court representation to the needy and poor women victims, LACC established the Women's Rights Helpline Project (Helpline) on January 01, 1999. The Women's Rights Helpline project was initially funded by the Netherlands Development Assistance (NEDA) It is now being sponsored by the Royal Danish Embassy/DANIDA. The Women's Rights Helpline Project has created a database and providing legal information and referral services to the needy women. The project also functions as a legal aid and counselling service, referral and data collection centre on violence against women, aiming to contribute on ending violence against women.

The Helpline offered free services to women in the Kathmandu Valley and provided essential legal advice, referrals, and friendly empathetic listeners to their problems. Women are increasingly using this service to vent their frustrations and obtain useful information and advice to their personal problems.

The information about the services offered by the Helpline project was disseminated through media campaign and radio spots, which were very successful. Consequently, the Helpline Project now assists over 89% more women with free legal aid, counselling, mediation and court representation, each month.

Since the inception of the project in January, 1999 the project  has  assisted 5,675 women and provided them with preliminary legal advice till November 30, 2001. They have also benefited further by visiting our office to receive extensive legal assistance and in some cases, court representation.  Likewise, 354 lawsuits were initiated and are being represented in the court by our attorneys and 155 cases has been decided in favour of women. Very few cases has been defeated in the District Court.  The project takes up the defeated  cases  to the Appellate Court  and sometimes in the Supreme Court.  199 cases are under court proceedings in the court of Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur. Most of the divorce seeking women and their husband are called to office for providing counselling.

In view of the need of providing the above mentioned services to woman victims of violence, rape, sexual exploitation, abuses, polygamy, battering, forced divorce and trafficking, the project was initially implemented as a one year pilot project. The Netherlands Development Assistance (NEDA), sponsored the project for one year. Due to the success of the programme and its usefulness, the programme is now being continued with the sponsorship of the Royal Danish Embassy, Kathmandu.

• To assist women victims who need prompt legal advice and counselling, especially those who are more susceptible to domestic violence, social and religious constraints and repression, and can only speak if they are guaranteed anonymity.
  
• To assist woman victims of violence, rape, sexual exploitation, abuses, polygamy, bigamy, domestic violence, battering, forced divorce and trafficking in seeking justice through legal and court procedures.
  
• To offer free legal representation to clients for filing lawsuits in the court.
  
• To grant financial assistance for court expenses to needy women victims.
  
• To contribute for ending the violence against women.
  
• To implement Beijing Platform for Action Declaration
  
• To provide Telephone-counselling services to the needy woman victims.
  
• To extend its services to other districts and rural areas outside the Kathmandu Valley.
  
• To lobby with and pressurise the Government officials and Members of Parliament to enact women's property rights.

Women callers can remain anonymous while receiving free preliminary legal advice from our staff attorneys and phone counsellors. Phone-callers also make use of the free mediation services and legal representation by scheduling a visit to our office. The Helpline office helps the needy women, who do not have access to a phone or who prefer to speak to our team of attorneys in person.

Helpline also helps the clients to identify and contact the Police officers, Police Women's Cells, and medical practitioners in order to facilitate the filing of complaints and obtaining medical certificates required by the court or police. About 12% of all clients are referred mostly to police, CDO office, rehabilitation centers, shelter homes, de-addiction services and family planning services.

The incidence of violence in the lives of Nepalese women is hard to measure, given the private or hidden nature of most violent acts and the cultural barriers that keep women from reporting theses crimes. The data collected at the Women's Rights Helpline is a reliable indicator of the prevalence of the problem.

The data collected from 6,000 women indicates that on an average, 80% clients were victims of violence i.e., domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape and dowry-related violence. They suffered from domestic violence, mostly on a daily basis. The vast majority of women contacting the Helpline are either victims of battering or are afflicted by the negative consequences of their husband's polygamy or bigamy. Battering, polygamy or bigamy reported are the main and secondary problems faced by women.

Majority of women blamed their husband's alcohol consumption or addiction as the main cause for domestic violence. However, studies now suggest that though alcohol triggers the violence, but it is not the sole cause of domestic violence. The Helpline staff have referred innumerable women to the limited rehabilitation services for alcoholics located in the Kathmandu Valley. These phone-callers tend to insist that if the drinking were somehow stopped, so would the violence they suffered.

Both the legal and illegal polygamy or bigamy are a widespread problem with very negative consequences for the women involved. According to the clients, once the husband marries a second wife, a hostile atmosphere at the home eventually leads to periodic beatings of the wife. Furthermore, most battering cases related to bigamy and polygamy cases are excessively violent, since they are perpetrated not only by the husband, but also by the first or the second wife. Mostly, husband's excuse for marrying a second wife is ascribed to first wife's failure in giving birth to any children or giving birth to only daughters. It has also been reported as a way to obtain another dowry.

While the data for cases of divorce, maintenance, alimony and property-partition reveal that the majority of these clients wanted to distance themselves from their husband due to their battering related to polygamy and bigamy. Women tend to file for property-partition, alimony or maintenance expenses from the husband, only if the polygamy or bigamy is the cause. Whereas divorce is more commonly chosen when battering is involved. Actually, half of all divorce cases claim can be attributed to the severe violence they are subjected to at their home. This make them to consider for seeking divorce.

Consequently, most women who are subjected to battering will choose the most drastic and difficult solution to end the problem - divorce. The social stigma, isolation, and lack of property rights in divorce, is preferable to many women who cannot continue to endure the torture of periodic beatings by the husband and some times from his entire family.

The data has become a very important tool for analysing various problems faced by women and the incidence of VAW and for raising awareness about them. * The recent data is available upon request.

• Since its establishment, the Helpline Project has assisted 5,675 women. Its has surpassed its indicators for success. Helpline Project helped 89% more women over the targeted numbers during this period. Nepalese women have become more receptive to the services, despite the common perception that women in this country prefer not to discuss their problems with strangers.

• The Women's Rights Helpline project provides free legal services to the women victims of violation of their human rights. Its staff attorneys are currently representing a total of 354 lawsuits on behalf of women victims in different Courts, out of which 155 cases have been decided in favour of women. 199  cases are under court proceedings in the courts of Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur.

• It collects data which can draw attention to issues that are important for the empowerment of women. The statistics are valuable tools and a source of current information on women victims. Each month the numbers grow, making the data more reflective of various ordeals the women must have undergone.

• The Women's Rights Helpline project also uses the media to raise awareness about the phenomenon of Violence Against Women. Our radio spots, which especially focus on Violence Against Women, such as wife battering and rape, serve as daily reminders to both women and men of the physical and mental damages inflicted on women by these crimes. Initially, the Project limited its target group to the women of Kathmandu Valley only and advertised its services mainly through FM radio channels. Later, the Project started advertising its services through National Radio- the Radio Nepal to reach its service throughout the country. As a result, 10% of clients' call are now received from outside the Valley.

• Many people both men and women have now become aware about the services offered by the Women's Rights Helpline Project, due to our continued efforts to advertise our services through media. It is now easy for any needy woman to remember our phone number, 543-111 and 527334.
  

Besides, providing services in three districts of Kathmandu Valley - Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts, the Helpline Project has extended its activities by establishing Extension Services at Jhapa and Doti districts. The women of districts and rural areas face more problems related to violence against women.. They are more vulnerable to domestic violence. The situation against women is aggravated by poverty and illiteracy in these areas. They do not have access to legal counselling and legal aid. In last one year Women's Rights Helpline Project has acquired considerable experiences in providing legal aid and counselling to needy women victims. The Women's Rights Helpline Project has contributed in helping the woman victims of domestic violence, rape, sexual exploitation, abuses, battering, polygamy, bigamy and trafficking by providing them with free legal aid and counselling services.

LACC, the parent organisation of Helpline project has established partnership network arrangement with the District Bar Associations (DBAs) which has branch offices throughout the country. This has helped the Helpline Project to establish partnership network with the District Bar Associations and the NGOs working for women of Jhapa and Doti districts.

The Project has prepared a legal manual. This manual contains a brief overview of the essential procedural information needed as preliminary legal advice. It is used by the Helpline staff during peek office hours. It is also used to train the volunteers. The manual could also be helpful as a study guide for law students and a valuable reference material for Nepalese and foreign development workers. It is available in both Nepali and English languages

In order to inform women of their legal options, the project has prepared brochures. These brochures deal with five main topics such as, polygamy/bigamy, battering, rape, women's property rights and divorce. Recently a male brochure aimed at educating men on gender equality has been published and distributed.

In conclusion, Women's Rights Helpline Project is promoting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by contributing to end Violence Against Women.