UN report urges justice system reform and monitoring to increase women's access and participation

in

UN Women was launched in February as an umbrella agency of the United Nations, consolidating several agencies into one to address global women’s issues. Its first report, Progress of the World’s Women in Pursuit of Justice, released July 6, points to the ongoing problems facing women worldwide seeking justice through the courts. It cites complicated legal processes, long delays, and mounting financial and social costs as key reasons many women abandon their attempts to achieve justice through the legal system. In some countries, long delays and high costs of litigation co-exist with extremely low conviction rates for crimes against women. These factors create hurdles many women are unable to overcome, preventing them from pursuing legal options in the first place or forcing them to “drop out” of the justice system if they have sought redress.

Citing statistics on laws relating to violence against women, the report notes where progress has been made: Domestic violence is now outlawed in 125 countries and where barriers remain: Globally, 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not considered a crime. The report makes a series of recommendations that the authors say will encourage progress toward important United Nations goals, such as those laid out in the 1979 Convention on all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals. To ensure justice becomes a reality for all women, UN Women calls on governments to:

  • Repeal laws that discriminate against women, and ensure that legislation protects women from violence and inequality in the home and the workplace.
  • Support innovative justice services, including one-stop shops, legal aid, and specialized courts, to ensure women can access the justice to which they are entitled.
  • Put women on the frontline of justice delivery. A greater number of women police officers is correlated with a higher percentage of women reporting sexual violence.
  • Invest in justice systems that can respond to women’s needs. Only 5 percent of global spending for justice system reform specifically targets women and girls.

The report also recommends systematic tracking of judicial decision making, citing the importance of monitoring “to provide accountability to women seeking justice and to enable civil society and governments to monitor the performance of the courts on women’s rights.”

This article appears in the Summer 2011 WATCH newsletter. You can download the entire issue (as a .pdf) here.