Enhancing access to justice for women through legal aid
(Rule 26, Chapter 6)
A joint project by UNODC, UN Women, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) aims at enhancing access to justice for women in Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. It focuses on improving the situation of women who are at particular risk of being “left behind”, namely women who have experienced violence and women in the criminal justice system, whether as victims, witnesses, accused or convicted of a crime. Through the project, legal aid providers are sensitised and trained to deliver gender-responsive legal aid services, including on conducting gender-sensitive interviews and interrogations of victims of gender-based or sexual violence.
The project promotes gender equality and social inclusion by promoting measures to close important legal and practical gaps that prevent women from accessing the criminal justice system on an equal footing with men due to existing obstacles in access to legal aid. All project activities pay specific attention to the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination affecting some women even more than others (such as older women, women with disabilities, Iindigenous or minority women, etc.).
For more information see:
UNODC, Improving Access to Legal Aid for Women in West Africa.
UNODC, Handbook on Ensuring Quality of Legal Aid Services in Criminal Justice Processes, Practical Guidance and Promising Practices, 2019, p. 67.