A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO ELECTORAL JUSTICE Background Credible and inclusive elections are a cornerstone of resilient democratic governance. An electoral justice system that is transparent and inclusive can bolster citizens’ trust in elections, making them more willing to accept election results and ensure a more peaceful post-election period and transition of power.49 Indeed, an inclusive, fair EDR process is enshrined in various international and regional normative frameworks and obligations, including the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.50 In particular, those standards guarantee the right to be “treated equally by the law and the courts.”51 In addition to those international norms, most national constitutional frameworks guarantee equality before the law and access to justice. Simply put, equal access to credible electoral justice processes is a human right. Regardless of this fact, many law or justice systems do not consider “gendered economic, structural and cultural barriers” and are not “representative of the people they serve.”52 Disregard for these considerations, combined with persistent and systemic societal and institutional Disputes during the electoral process may relate to: • • • • gender inequality, often mean that women are subject to discrimination in the justice sector – and thus subject to the further discrimination, violence and harm that comes when perpetrators are not • held accountable for their crimes. While ensuring • that • justice systems integrate gender The implementation of an electoral law, including a gender quota law; The voter registration process; The candidate nomination process; The campaign period (including campaign finance violations, vote buying, campaigning outside the designated time period, and unlawful conduct regarding opponents); The voting process (i.e., unlawfully adding or removing ballots, intimidating or interfering with voters); Gender-based violence in politics, including hate speech; or Election results. considerations can help women seek justice, reducing gender inequality on a broader scale – for example, by shifting negative cultural beliefs and harmful gender norms – would also lead to a more inclusive justice sector. A gender lens on justice processes is also necessary because “experiences of injustice are gendered, and … women have been the primary or only victims of certain forms of violence, usually perpetrated by men.”53 While women’s access to justice research has primarily focused on issues related to gender-based violence, property rights, and marriage rights, some findings from this work can be applied to the electoral justice sector. The broader literature on women’s access to justice suggests that women might not have equal access to resources (including money, time, and information) that would enable them to pursue legal or judicial resolutions. This literature also demonstrates that legal and judicial actors may, whether consciously or not,54 reinforce discriminatory practices that discourage or prohibit women from bringing complaints forward. Because of the lack of sex-disaggregated data 49 Solijonov. (2016). Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections (GUARDE). (2024). 51 Ibid, p. 180. 52 Gordon, E. (2019). P. 1. 53 Ibid, p. 9. 54 “There were just so few women lawyers and no female judges. We definitely stood out! However, over the years, what really gnawed at me was the embedded gender bias in the decision-making process. I’m not sure judges or juries were even aware of this bias or how it might have affected their decisions.” One Woman’s Quest for Equality and Fairness: The Impact of Gender Bias on the Judicial DecisionMaking Process. (n.d.). www.jamsadr.com. 50 31