is no procedure for making orders on maintenance and custody of children and these matters must be settled by actions in courts under General law, unless parties enter into a settlement and have it entered as part of the divorce proceedings. Unlike in criminal prosecutions spouses can be witnesses in civil proceedings against each other or for or against third persons. (Evidence Ordinance S.120 (1)(2)). Proceedings under the Domestic Violence Act (2005) are civil in nature, though they are heard in the magistrate’s court, and the respondent or the person against whom the case is filed can be punished if he violates an order made by a court under the Act. Proceedings under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2005 (DV Act) The title states that this is an Act to provide for the “Prevention of any Act of Domestic Violence”. With that objective in view, the Act provides a procedure by which a person in respect of whom such an act has been committed or is likely to be committed (an aggrieved person), can apply for a Protection order for the prevention of such an Act. (S. 2 (1)). The purpose of the law is therefore clearly to protect the aggrieved person or victim of this type of violence, and ensure that her right to freedom from this violence is recognized by the courts as a serious infringement of her right to physical and bodily integrity. It is therefore critically important for judges and lawyers to understand the objective and purpose of the law. Similarly the police cannot adopt the approach that they take in the case of minor crimes and try to mediate and settle the case between the parties. The Act states that when an application is made the courts shall “forthwith” consider the application. (S.3). Judges and lawyers therefore cannot persuade the parties to “settle” the case through a procedure of mediation. The fact that the person bringing the action is described as “the aggrieved person,” seeking a “protection order” clarifies that she is before Court demanding an order that will prevent further violence and protect her from such violence, responding proactively to violence and infliction of bodily harm that has already occurred before the case was filed. Several provisions on the type of court orders that can be made refer to the need to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the person in preventing acts of domestic violence. (S. 11 (1)(k) S. 4 (2) S. 8, S. 12 (1) S. 5 (1)(b)). An aggrieved person who comes before the Magistrates' Court and takes steps under the DV Act must have access to these court procedures and the relief and remedies provided by this law. Definition of Domestic Violence Domestic Violence is defined for the purpose of this act in a manner that cross references Penal Code offences on non-fatal injuries and sexual and other forms of violence in Chapter XVI of the Code, as Offences to the Human Body and Affecting Life. That conduct can also be considered Domestic Violence under this Act. Additionally the Penal Code offences of Extortion (S.372), Criminal Intimidation (S. 483) and attempt to commit these offences is included in the definition. Economic and financial violence is therefore covered. (S. 23 (a) and Schedule 1 to the Act). Most importantly the definition of domestic violence includes emotional abuse which as we have seen is not incorporated in a specific offence in the Penal Code. (S. 23 (b)). This conduct needs to be perpetrated: (a) within the home or outside and (b) must arise out of the personal relationship between the persons before court (S. 23). Emotional abuse itself is defined as “a pattern (i.e. systemic) of cruel inhuman degrading or humiliating conduct of a serious nature directed toward” the aggrieved person who brings the case. COMPENDIUM ON LAW, GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 31