A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO ELECTORAL JUSTICE One specific group of laws meant to ensure women’s political participation is gender quota laws, which are in use in more than half the world’s countries to increase the number or proportion of women candidates or elected representatives.15 Despite this intention, gender quotas are not always effective because of lax implementation and insufficient enforcement. Because a key component of electoral justice is ensuring that each election-related action complies with the law, failure to implement gender quotas demonstrates women’s gender-specific experiences in accessing electoral justice. For example, some countries’ legal and regulatory frameworks do not impose penalties when political parties choose not to comply with a gender quota. Even where there are sanctions for non-compliance, political parties have proved creative in finding loopholes to avoid fielding women candidates. Campaign and political finance laws can also be used to promote gender equality but, as with quotas, implementation is often lacking. In some countries, election laws stipulate that parties must use a certain proportion of their public funding to promote women’s access to and inclusion in elections. But in many cases, parties do not use this funding to promote women’s political participation meaningfully, instead finding ways to spend it on events and items that only superficially support women in politics. Lax monitoring of campaign and political finance laws results in parties not being held accountable. Finding 3: Women often lack the resources required to pursue electoral complaints. Women are more likely to be poor, have less control over finances, and have more domestic and care responsibilities than men. All these elements impact their ability to participate in political and electoral processes in general and to bring forward electoral disputes in particular.16 With these greater limitations on time and money, it can be especially challenging for women to travel to courts and more difficult for them to pay costs associated with bringing forward electoral complaints.17 Twenty-five percent of countries require a fee or deposit to be paid when lodging electoral complaints contesting the results of an election, and 13 percent of countries charge a fee or require a deposit to file a complaint related to candidate nomination processes.18 The cost of legal representation can be another significant cost associated with bringing an election case, and women are less likely than men to have the resources to hire private counsel. Finding 4: Electoral justice institutions may not appropriately address women’s cases and complaints. Institutions that are responsible for hearing and adjudicating electoral complaints – including EMBs, courts, prosecutors, and police – are often led primarily by men. Global comparative data on women’s representation in the justice sector writ large are not available but, as noted above, the available data show women are underrepresented in the judiciary, especially in leadership roles. Representation is even weaker for women who belong to other 15 Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Inter-Parliamentary Union & Stockholm University. Gender Quotas Database. (2021). 16 Gordon, E. (2019). Justice and Gender. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 17 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. (2019b). Handbook for the Observation of Election Dispute Resolution. P. 68. “While the law might provide equal conditions, in practice procedures could disproportionately burden women. For example, procedures for filing complaints or appeals that require travel or the payment of filing fees may pose a greater barrier for women in societies where there is inequality of pay for equal work.” 18 Solijonov, A. (2016). Electoral Justice Regulations Around the World: Key findings from International IDEA’s global research on electoral dispute-resolution systems. International IDEA. 12