Enhancing Women’s Access to Justice in Asia and the Pacific: Bridging the gap between formal and informal systems through women’s empowerment

Programme initiatives across the region

Building the capacity of front-line formal justice actors to eliminate gender-discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards women

Working closely with lawyers and law enforcement officers is key as they are the first point of contact with women, and can enable or hinder their real ability to access justice. Thus, through the partnership with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a series of gender-responsive trainings were conducted for lawyers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and National Police Commission (KOMPOLNAS) of Indonesia.

National Judicial Dialogue on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and Enhancing Women’s Access to Justice

The ICJ, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Judges' Institute (SLJI) and Nepal Judicial Academy (NJA), co-hosted the National Judicial Dialogue on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and Enhancing Women’s Access to Justice in the respective countries (August 2020, March 2021). The dialogues highlighted how women in Sri Lanka and Nepal continue to face a myriad of challenges when accessing justice, including legal, institutional and cultural barriers. 

Regional Judicial Dialogue on Women’s Access to Justice

Through the partnership with ICJ, and in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Federal Court of Malaysia, the 2019 Southeast Asia Regional Judicial Dialogue was hosted in Kuala Lumpur. The event brought together formal and informal justice actors to promote the use and application of the Bangkok General Guidance for Judges in Applying a Gender Perspective to enhance Women’s Access to Justice, and to raise awareness of their role in upholding international laws on women’s rights, including CEDAW. The judges from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Timor-Leste discussed how to apply CEDAW and other international legal instruments in their work at the domestic level to eliminate the negative impact of stereotyping and gender bias in the judiciary.

Programme initiatives across the region

Piloting a community-based approach to gender justice in Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines and Timor-Leste

As part of the programme, UN Women, together with grassroots and civil society organizations, community-based justice actors, women human rights defenders, justice providers, and local governments, have piloted community-based interventions aimed at increasing women’s access to justice and fostering gender-responsive people-centered justice.

Across all four countries, the pilot models have been recognized by local community members and national partners as a successful approach to enhancing women’s access to and participation in justice systems. The programme has contributed to building more just, inclusive and peaceful societies, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5 and Goal 16.

Programme initiatives across the region

Human rights training on environmental protection and land rights across the region

In August 2019, in close cooperation with the United Nations Expert Mechanism on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Women’s Access to Justice programme co-organized a workshop for indigenous youth human rights defenders in Bangkok. The event provided a safe space for 29 participants to discuss human rights, women’s rights and climate justice issues.

Through its partnership with OHCHR, the Women’s Access to Justice programme will organize four human rights capacity-building workshops for selected women human rights defenders with a focus on the documentation and reporting on human rights violations and the use of the United Nations human rights mechanisms.

Establishing a unified movement of Women Human Rights Defenders in the Pacific

In July 2019, the Pacific Human Rights Defenders Network was launched in Fiji with support from the Women’s Access to Justice programme. The purpose of the network is to promote the protection of human rights and to ensure the collective protection and empowerment of human rights defenders in the Pacific region with a special emphasis on women and gender non-conforming human rights defenders. The network currently has over 100 human rights defenders, the majority of whom are women. Key priorities for the network include providing technical assistance and strengthening the Pacific Human Rights Defenders Network to formulate a protection strategy for human rights defenders across the Pacific Islands.