She said at the moment, the common procedure that organization such as Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) uses to address violence cases is to apply for straining order from the high court to protect the victim from the abuser while waiting for trial.

However, Advocate Thabane mentioned that straining order is expensive and its implementation depends on the couple in conflict. She therefore calls for speed enactment of the law to address violence cases in the country.

In the past, the police in Lesotho refused to intervene in domestic violence cases especially between married couples unless if there is incidence of a bloodshed. But at the moment, police shows that they intervene in domestic violence but they usually use binding order form where they counsel the couple and later the two commit in writing to strain their violent behavior to each other.

Meanwhile the police mentioned that if the couple repeats the similar violent incident in future, then such case will now be taken to the courts of law.

The participants at the paralegal workshop indicated that usually domestic violence cases do not only affect couple but also children, the whole family and the community at large and therefore they called on Government to speed-up enactment of Domestic Violence Act to deal with violence cases in Lesotho.

Among others the participants discussed about Human Rights, Convention of the Rights of the Child, Child Protection and Welfare Bill 2003, Sexual Offence Act 2004 and Domestic Violence. Facilitators were Lawyer and Judge of the high court while participants were police officers from Thaba Tseka and Maseru region.

The police officers awareness training is part of FIDA paralegal trainings for members of Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS) with the aim of empowering them with basic laws necessary in the protection of vulnerable community particularly children and women.

FIDA with the support of Global Fund Round 2 grants embarked in paralegal trainings following the high rate of sexual abuse and property grabbing among children and women as well as discrimination of people living with HIV and AIDS.

The trainings of paralegal project is also extended to community and school children aimed at increasing legal awareness of laws of inheritance and property rights among school going orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The topics covered among schools awareness campaigns are inheritance law, property rights and Sexual Offence Act.

Following this paralegal awareness trainings, children and women are now knowledgeable on human rights issues and able to report cases in order to get help while police are now able to deal with gender and child protection cases effectively.

According to FIDA quarter report from September to December 2008, the trained community paralegals reported to the police different cases from their respective communities. The cases ranged from two cases of domestic violence, one divorce, four property grabbing cases, two of maintenance, five legal advices and one case of the power of attorney.

Other paralegal awareness exercise is conducted in the form of radio programs as well as through pamphlets dissemination to ensure the public is aware about basic laws for protection of human rights particularly of vulnerable groups such as children and women.