Courtroom Visit

Posted by Ellen on Thursday, November 27, 2008

On Wednesday April and I visited a Magistrate Courthouse in Homagama, and met with Additional Magistrate Judge Wimalasena. We arrived before court was in session to talk with Judge Wimalasena about the current legal landscape for women and children in Sri Lanka, and where he thought Emerge could help the most. Then, we observed an hour and a half of court proceedings. Wednesday is "maintenance day," where maintenance is paid from one individual to another, generally for child support or neglect. April and I watched what seemed like 30 different cases go by in less than two hours.

I have a hard time conceptualizing things until I actually see them with my own eyes, so to sit in the courtroom and watch how cases were managed allowed me to better understand what the girls of Ma-Sevana go through. All of the girls are currently involved in the Sri Lankan legal system, in various states of trial, so getting an inside glimpse into how courts here run was both interesting and valuable.

It was also useful to gather information about the Sri Lankan legal system as a whole, and Judge Wimalasena was incredibly helpful in explaining how the courts run and listing specific Acts we should research. A lot of the work I have done in the past month has been very detailed and specific: from changing the way the bead workshops run to developing Emerge Global's 2009 budget. Being able to take a step back and look at the big picture was not only refreshing, but helped me clarify my thinking as to where Emerge should be focusing its time and energy here in Sri Lanka.

On a different note, this will be my last blog post "from the field" for about a month. I head back to the USA on Monday, and look forward to seeing a lot of you there!


Until then,
Ellen