Today, Africa has the world’s largest number of women heading constitutional courts and acting as chief justices. This historic fact should play an important role in overcoming gender inequality broadly in society, but also specifically within the justice system. Women in justice in Africa is a comparative study of women judges in 14 countries, highlighting the remarkable contributions women make in the field of justice.As part of the UNDP and UN Women Gender Justice Platform, this study is designed to promote the empowerment of women and advancement of gender equality in crisis and development contexts through specific action points. It chronicles evidence that women judges are less susceptible to corruption, and their effective representation in the judiciary increases public trust in the system.The publication begins by contextualizing the purpose, background and methodology of the research, detailing the importance of women’s participation in the justice sector. It then delves into the comparative, quantitative data analysis and discusses noticeable trends across the 10 case studies in Africa. It proceeds by examining various barriers to women’s meaningful participation in the judiciary, including cultural, legal and institutional barriers to entry, retention and promotion.The study also outlines the lessons learned and good practices identified on women’s meaningful judiciary participation. These lessons can help promote the equal and meaningful representation of women in judiciaries and in positions of leadership. It concludes by providing both general and specific recommendations aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of women in the judiciaries of the select African countries.
Related Organizations
- Document Type
- Case study
- Pages
- 68
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- Women in justice in Africa 1
- Acknowledgements 3
- Foreword 4
- Foreword 6
- Table of contents 7
- Acronyms 8
- Definition and terminology 9
- Executive summary 11
- Contextualizing the importance of womens participation in the justice sector 13
- Assertion 1 21
- Assertion 2 22
- Assertion 3 22
- Assertion 4 23
- Assertion 5 23
- Data analysis on womens representation in judiciaries in the study countries 24
- Barriers to womens meaningful participation in judiciaries in the study countries 30
- Lessons learned and good practices on womens meaningful participation in judiciaries 44
- Religious and customary courts tend to have lower representation of women 44
- Other justice actors must be considered to support womens participation with attention to the legal system 44
- Gender sensitive procedures for womens effective participation are useful but political will can have a greater impact 45
- Leadership and champions on gender equality inside the judiciary are key to set positive role models 45
- The accountability process will define the success of the outcome expected regarding gender sensitive measures at the national level 45
- Proactive leadership 46
- Constitutional gender quotaslaws on gender equality 46
- Professional associations for peer supporttraining programmes 46
- Gender-sensitive judicial policies 47
- Civil society advocacy for gender inclusive benches 47
- Recommendations on improving womens representation in the judiciary 48
- Targeted outreach capacity development and mentoring 48
- Training and support for women in the judiciary 49
- Insider-outsider collaboration 49
- Promotion of entry and career progression rules that are fair transparent and gender sensitive 50
- Highlighting successful role models in the judiciary to counter negative stereotypes 50
- Civil society involvement 51
- Gender audits and institutional policies to reduce gender bias and discrimination 51
- Annexes of interview questions and participating countries 60
- Annex 1 60
- Annex 2 61
- Annex 3 62
- Annex 4 63
- Research on womens representation in the judiciary in Africa 63
- Annex 5 67
