Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

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WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 247
way of identifying and garnering support for appropriate cases.
Maintaining a long-term relationship with individual civil society
organizations helps to build trust between civil society and
advocates about the right way of dealing with women subject
to violence. Service providing non-governmental organizations
can also ensure comprehensive care for their well-being, to
complement legal advocacy.
Trainings and workshops about international human rights law
and standards can be a way of making connections with
appropriate civil society organizations. However, often a more
sustained relationship with their work – for example, assisting
in the long term with advice-giving or casework assistance –
can present new ways of looking at cases, for the nongovernmental
organization and the advocate. An important
example of this is where women are targeted for prosecution
themselves, for example, for drug use or sex work. While
advocates may initially address the criminal defence aspect,
sometimes a women may disclose information about violence
to which they have been subjected, for example, rape and
domestic violence. It may also suggest the need for
psychological support and assistance. Where a civil society
organization is dealing with a heavy caseload of similar cases,
then this may indicate that legal intervention, such as strategic
litigation, could be an effective means of addressing access to
justice for a wider range of similarly effective women.
Where women have come to terms with the violence committed
against them and are seeking safety and a dynamic change in
their situation this may be a good time to approach them with
information about whether they wish to pursue access to
justice. Often survivors are extremely motivated to ensure that
what happened to them is not repeated, they wish their
experience to lead to “lessons learned.”
Maintaining client care while developing strategic
litigation
Undertaking litigation on behalf of individual women, or group
actions, can be an important method of securing broader