Barriers to Women’s Access to Justice and the Mediating Role of Senior Advocates and Female Judges in the Superior Judiciary

Abstract

Access to justice has been narrowly understood as access to lawyers and courts, and broadly as an equal right to access to all institutions where debate, development, discovery, organization, administration, interpretation and application of the law take place. The issues that stand in way of women's access to justice are explored in this article and how these issues can be overcome by the increased number of senior women advocates and female judges in superior judiciary. It first clarifies competing definitions of “legal needs” and “access to justice” and comes to conclusion that people do not have a need for legal services per se, but for the outcomes they achieve through legal services: remedy, reconciliation, or fairness and closure. It then outlines a typology of the financial, information, procedural, cultural, geographical and institutional barriers to access and discusses the specific and reinforcing barriers to access for women: the lack of information and legal literacy, widespread gender stereotyping by police and courts, discriminatory practices of customary and informal justice systems and financial dependence, which creates a significant imbalance of power. The article, based on the deliberations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and its General Recommendation, as well as socio-legal literature, proposes that, although greater participation of women as advocates and judges is necessary (but not sufficient) to remove these barriers, especially in decision-making roles. It shows that a comprehensive approach of representation, gender-sensitive training, procedural changes and structural assistance is the most convincing way to move from recognition of discrimination to its eradication.

Keywords: Access To Justice, Women’s Rights, Gender Stereotyping, Female Judges, Legal Aid