ABSTRACT
The Institute for Legal Defense (IDL), the primary educational agency in this study, is a Lima-based NGO committed to HRE in economically and politically marginalized communities in Cusco, Peru. IDL identifies the causes of poverty prevalent in rural areas, as the poor social and economic conditions in which the communities live, and illiteracy, which is aggravated by indifference and incompetence on the part of state officials. The conditions of the women and their children are, according to IDL, further exacerbated by the traditional, male-defined, social roles in their communities and by the women's lack of awareness of their civil and human rights and of the mechanisms through which they may obtain redress and compliance. IDL therefore chose to work with women in these marginalized communities who were suffering systemic human rights abuses and lacked effective access to legal recourse through the state's judicial apparatus.
