A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO ELECTORAL JUSTICE “catering, decorations, and flowers for holidays like International Women’s Day, the International Day of the Child, Mother’s Day, among others.”70 Despite the disingenuous way that parties spend funds earmarked for women’s participation, lax monitoring of campaign and political finance laws means that parties are not held accountable. The lack of monitoring and enforcement means that individual candidates are often not punished for violating the law, which often gives male candidates (who are likely to have more resources, money, and connections than their women counterparts) a further advantage over women candidates. For example, in Nepal, an IFES study found that “despite the issuance of the political finance regulations, candidate and political party expenditures lacked transparency, with domestic observers noting a lack of monitoring mechanisms, without which the [Election Commission of Nepal] was unable to enforce the spending limits.”71 Without fair and inclusive electoral justice mechanisms to hold parties and candidates accountable, these violations will continue to occur. 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.72 With these greater limitations on both time and money, it can be more challenging for women to travel to courts that are not near their homes (a particular struggle for rural women) and more difficult for them to pay costs associated with bringing forward electoral complaints (e.g., filing fees or costs of counsel).73 The challenges are often compounded for women with disabilities, who might have less mobility or need to travel with companions to assist them. Women with disabilities might also depend on family members for money, and thus might not have sufficient control over their finances to draw on the funds required to file electoral complaints. For example, Malawi’s High Court, which governs electoral matters, is only present at the regional level, and “courts in rural areas are poorly resourced, poorly managed, and offer a limited range of services.”74 Data from 173 countries reveals that 25 percent of them require the payment of a fee or deposit when lodging electoral complaints contesting the results of an election, and 13 percent charge a fee or require a deposit to file a complaint regarding candidate nomination processes. 75 According to the OSCE Handbook for the Observation of Election Dispute Resolution: “Filing fees may present additional barriers to [the] EDR system. Analysts should inquire into the fee requirements and assess if they are overly prohibitive. While fees are a means of preventing frivolous complaints, they also can create a barrier to the process, especially for women and other underrepresented groups. When considering financial implications, legal analysts should also evaluate less obvious costs related to filing complaints such as legal fees for representation, court fees, costs of transportation for witnesses or other key stakeholders.” 76 In the 2019 elections in Malawi, research found that “women candidates who were aggrieved by the electoral processes bemoaned the lack of readily available legal assistance from the state and other non-state actors” as they did not have the resources to hire private lawyers.77 In a 2018 IFES Electoral Integrity Assessment in Kenya, 70 Chirillo, G., and Andrea Rosario. (2021). CEPPS Gender Assessment Report: Honduras. Cantrell, A., Ohman, M., and Bhatta, M. (2020, January 27). The Cost of Representation: A Study of Women’s Representation and Political Finance in Nepal. IFES – The International Foundation for Electoral Systems. 72 Gordon, 2019. 73 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. (2019b). P. 68. “The legal analyst should assess whether in practice women face unequal conditions in accessing the EDR process. 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.” 74 Malunga, B. (n.d.). Women’s access to justice in Electoral Cases. (Not publicly available). 75 Solijonov, 2016. 76 OSCE ODIHR, 2019. 77 Malunga, n.d. 71 37