[EQ] Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice

Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice

UN Report - 6 July 2011, United Nations, New York

Full text available online:

English  PDF [168p.] http://bit.ly/oQkCvZ

Spanish PDF [168 p.] at: http://bit.ly/mWTiNv

Justice still out of reach for millions of women, UN Women says

 

Flagship report from UN’s new organization for women recognizes progress, but calls on governments to take urgent action to end the injustices that keep women poorer and less powerful than men in every country in the world

Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice is UN Women’s first major report, following the organization’s launch in early 2011. It recognizes the positive progress made – 139 countries and territories now guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, for example – but also shows that too often, women continue to experience injustice, violence and inequality in their home and working lives.

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. As police, judges, legislators and activists, women in every region are making a difference and bringing about change.

·          Invest in justice systems that can respond to women’s needs. Donors spend US$4.2 billion annually on aid for justice reform, but only 5% of this spending specifically targets women and girls.

“With half the world’s population at stake, the findings of this report are a powerful call to action.”
said Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women….”

Contents: In Pursuit of Justice

Part I: Making Justice Systems Work for Women

Introduction

Balancing the Scales: Groundbreaking Legal Cases that have Changed Women’s Lives

Chapter 1: Legal Frameworks

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

What does justice mean for women?

Does the rule of law rule women out?

Making justice systems work for women

Gender justice and the Millennium Development Goals

Funding for women’s access to justice

When a husband rapes his wife, it is a crime

Women have the right to be free from sexual harassment in the workplace

It is not enough to have laws in place, they must be implemented

Intersectional discrimination can be challenged

Customary inheritance laws must comply with guarantees of equality

Discriminatory citizenship laws are incompatible with constitutional guarantees of equality

Women have the right to an abortion in certain circumstances  Judgment of the Constitutional Court of Colombia

Sexual violence is a tactic of war and a war crime

Reparations for violence against women must be ‘transformative’ Gonzalez and others (‘Cotton Field’) v Mexico

Case study: Nepal

Chapter 2: The Justice Chain

Chapter 3: Legal Pluralism and Justice for Women
Chapter 4: Justice for Women During and After Conflict

Part II: Gender Justice and the Millennium Development Goals

Ten Recommendations to Make Justice Systems Work for Women

1.  Support women’s legal organizations

2.  Support one-stop shops and specialized services to reduce attrition in the justice chain

3.  Implement gender-sensitive law reform

4.  Use quotas to boost the number of women legislators

5.  Put women on the front line of law enforcement

6.  Train judges and monitor decisions

7.  Increase women’s access to courts and truth

8.  Implement gender-responsive reparations programmes

9.  Invest in women’s access to justice

10. Put gender equality at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals

Annexes

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