The Hindu Business Line : Laws of opportunity

Chairing the governing body of a school taught me more about chairing a meeting and managing an organisation than many managers might learn from an industry.

Baroness Cathy Ashton: Law and the new order. - BIJOY GHOSH

She was in India last week mainly to talk to advocates and the judiciary about the opportunities that British law firms can offer India, if allowed to open shop here. "In a global economy India is poised in the next few years to become an even more important economic force, and we share the same language, the same legal system," says Baroness Cathy Ashton, the British Law Minister whose ministerial responsibilities include administrative justice, human rights, international legal trade and information rights.

While there are nine Indian legal firms operating in the UK, British firms are not yet allowed to operate in India. She sees synergy between the two nations that can help their legal professionals to "compete against the rest of the world for international contracts. Our legal firms will bring back to India contracts and commercial activities that are currently going on in London that should be going on here."

She says such a legal partnership would provide job opportunities for Indian advocates, and makes it clear that "we don't want to practise in your courts". A champion of both gender and human rights, the Baroness was impressed with the women she met in the legal profession and law schools. "They were highly skilled and incredible; in the mock trials the students presented the women stood out; my goodness, I'd hire them any time to represent me!"

Forced marriages

A passionate advocate against forced marriages, the Baroness is engaged in pushing through legislation in the House of Lords to make forced marriages that much more difficult. She tries to convince people of all faiths and communities that this issue is related to women's empowerment and fundamental human rights, and says such dialogues have resulted in more people seeking help and support through phone calls. While forced marriages are mainly found in Asian communities, "we hear that there are examples in the Romany or gypsy community too, as also from Somalia and other countries. But I suspect that much of this is hidden. I explain all the time that we're not talking about arranged marriages; this is about the girls — there are some boys too — having no choice."

The Minister says domestic violence in Britain is causing concern; 25 per cent of all reported serious crime is around domestic violence. "But the good news is that the rates are falling". Apart from working with the victims to assure them that they are not alone, specialist domestic violence courts have been set up in the UK. "So the perpetrators are under no illusion when they walk into that court; the folder says `DV' in big letters, so they can't pretend it's something else."

In the UK each week a woman dies due to domestic violence, but the campaign against it is getting results. "It has become more unacceptable and victims are not prepared to put up with it and the community is beginning to get involved too. We have a big part of the family law devoted to domestic violence... and it's not just about physical brutality, but also psychological damage, coercion, and so on. But we have to do more," she says.

On human rights and the much greater trauma of women in conflict zones or during crackdown on suspected terrorists, the Baroness says that while it is one of the greatest tragedies that women and children suffer much more in such cases, "we have to remember that women also are critical peacemakers and sometimes we forget the value of involving women."

She gives the example of Northern Ireland, "an area of great conflict, where the women first began, in their own local communities, to deal with the issues and problems and came together in a coalition. So the hope for women is that they are allowed to participate in finding solutions for conflict."

When asked what hope would the women of Iraq, which is getting pushed into a more fundamentalist Shiite framework, have of being peacemakers, she says, "The good news about Iraq is that women have actually been involved in the formation of a democratic government. I know that our women parliamentarians are actually doing a lot of work with women in Iraq, who are involved in the local communities. We're also saying that it is absolutely vital that they form part of the government and this is happening."

She adds that even within the UK there are many Muslim women who are "prominent in their community and doing a lot of work in the development of the community, keeping the tradition of Muslim life but also being integrated into the UK in terms of building up their educational opportunities and feeling part of the community. It is true that where women are able to participate fully they become leaders in their community and we've got to encourage that. But there are parts of the world where there is more to do."

Islam and the west

On the UK having done more than the rest of the western world in trying to understand the growing rift between Islam and the western world, but suspicions and question marks still remaining in the larger British society on Islam and Muslims and human rights getting compromised when a particular community is targeted she says: "First of all, I think we've still got a lot to do to make people understand what Islam is about and what it is not about; we've done quite a lot of work with communities in the UK but I think in terms of the rest of the population there is more to do. Because people need to understand that the teachings of the Koran are peaceful and they are very important to that community and they have a lot to offer."

But, she adds, having said and done that, "we've also got to make sure that we have a good dialogue with the Muslim community to take these issues forward. In terms of human rights, my view as a human rights minister in the UK is that we have human rights as a backdrop to everything that we do. And it is very important when you talk to any community that everybody understands that we live in a society that values human rights and that means individual human rights. So the right to practise the religion of your choice, the right to freedom of assembly are very important, as also the awareness that you're part of the community and the rights of other people are important too."

Single parent families

Baroness Ashton has been involved in working for single parent families and says that "many people in the UK seem to think of single parents as 18-year-old girls, whereas the average age of a single parent, when she is a woman, is in her 30s and she is much more likely to have been widowed rather than gone through a teenage pregnancy."

Also there are quite a few men heading single parent families; those who have lost their wives or when women have simply left or had drug or alcohol problems. A helpline, advice on how to get aid from government, childcare support so she can get back to work, and other help is available for such families.

On many women not opting to get married for various reasons, the Law Minister says, "One of our campaigns explains to people that if you're not married you don't have the same rights in law. It's very important that people know this and if they don't want to get married, they at least have some kind of agreement that courts will look at if things go wrong. It's also true that women are putting off having children." She explains that a woman who has had a baby is entitled by law to ask for flexible work hours when she returns to work.

She had also set up 20 years ago an employers' forum on disability and brought together 100 top companies in the UK to work on how best to employ disabled people. "Because ignorance is part of the problem; people make assumptions... they see the disability and not the ability and we need to make employers understand that people might have a disability but we should look at what they are able to do. We also brought in the Disability Discrimination Act that prevents employers from discriminating and this has been a hugely important part of ensuring that disabled people get work."

As a woman politician, has she had equal opportunities?

"Well I'm in the House of Lords so I'm an appointed politician. I've done a lot of work in health and education. So when I was asked by the Prime Minister to become a minister first in education and now in justice issues, what was fantastic for me was that half of the members here are women and from a wide variety of backgrounds. So they've had the opportunity to do other things as well."

So are women politicians different?

"I think that women politicians bring much greater values than some men. First of all we joke about women's multitasking skills but the truth is that women traditionally had many diff things to do. In the life of a minister you have to do a lot of different things. Secondly they bring a different perspective as they have looked at life in a different view their priorities might be different, they look at things perhaps more from a family perspective and we know that in every walk of life, when you have both men and women working together, you have a higher quality."

The Minister adds that in the British judicial system there is a conscious effort to bring in more women, of course without compromising on merit. "We know that some of these talented and qualified women will bring to a judge's work different attributes, characteristics and complementality."

While she doesn't think that women in politics are necessarily less corrupt than men, she does believe "women have traditionally not been allowed to demonstrate some of the best qualities they have in the world of work. They bring high intellectual values to decision-making, or a different viewpoint, and are able to use their knowledge and skills that might be different to men. For example, quite often, when I've been involved with management in developing equal opportunities policies, they don't take into account the kind of experience that a woman might have had. Chairing the governing body of a school taught me more about chairing a meeting and managing an organisation than many managers might learn from an industry. So we say to companies: `Think of what goals you are looking for. Surely you want people who can demonstrate that they listen, work hard, act with integrity and trust, and know how to deal with people effectively. In the end most jobs are about dealing effectively with people."

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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