A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO ELECTORAL JUSTICE electoral law, and training on how to help prevent electoral violence targeted at women and how to respond to women who have been victims of electoral violence with respect and sensitivity. All EMB personnel should receive training on implicit and unconscious bias, stereotyping, gender equality, healthy masculinities, and other relevant topics to help shift harmful cultural and social gender norms and to create a more enabling environment for women to participate in elections and report electoral violations. EMB and judicial personnel who will be involved in the EDR process should receive training on gender-sensitive electoral justice, including topics such as gender equality; cases and complaints that are more likely to affect women (and how to handle and resolve them); and political violence against women, including violence that occurs as part of the electoral cycle and violence that occurs online. Judges, magistrates, clerks, and other relevant judicial actors who will handle elections cases should be trained on gender quota rules (and how they apply) and any other specific provisions that support women’s political participation. Finally, EMBs, judicial institutions, and political parties should establish gender units or departments that are responsible for training and gender-mainstreaming programs, processes, and resources. In particular, political parties should make significant efforts – through sensitization and allies training for men candidates, staff, and leadership – to improve the environment for women candidates so women are not confronted with discrimination and violence within their own parties. Access to Courts and ADR Mechanisms In addition to training personnel, electoral courts should seek to make court services more readily available to all potential litigants, first addressing those barriers that particularly impact women, including court fees and the cost of traveling to file complaints. This may involve ensuring that electoral justice systems have localized offices or resources so complainants do not have to travel far to file complaints, provide evidence, or attend court proceedings. These resources could include expanding the availability of remote filing and remote or virtual court processes and endeavor to make virtual court stations – with computers and reliable internet connections – more widely available, prioritizing areas furthest from existing court services. Courts should also conduct gender-sensitive outreach campaigns so more people are aware of the stations and to provide information on the steps to take in filing claims. Online filing may also make it easier to ensure the privacy and safety of the person filing, which is especially important for victims of violence. Finally, courts should consider eliminating fees for file electoral complaints for women complainants, reduce fees to a symbolic fee, or – to address concerns of opening floodgates for meritless cases – require deposits to file complaints that will be returned once it is determined that the case has merit. ADR mechanisms are another way to increase access to electoral justice for women litigants. For example, in Nepal, which has a long cultural tradition of resolving disputes through a community mediation process, the 2011 Mediation Act details what cases can be resolved through mediation and encourages women’s representation as mediators. However, mediation is still dominated by men and it is not used formally to handle electoral disputes, although in practice IFES research found that monitoring committees, returning officers, and presiding officers use informal modes of resolution to resolve disputes related to campaigns, for instance. While these mechanisms are not explicitly provided for in the EDR directive on dispute resolution, they do present an opportunity to ensure a quick and decentralized mechanism to hear disputes related to women and to have women be part of the mediation at the community level. 28