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

16 PRACTITIONERS GUIDE No. 12
establishment of gender as a standard against which States are
held to account. According to a UNIFEM report: “Gender
sensitive accountability requires not just women’s participation
but institutional reform to make gender one of the standards
against which performance of decision makers is assessed”. 19
Legal advocacy can also address State accountability, including
at the highest levels of constitutional authority, through police
and prosecutors, other courts and legal systems, such as family
courts, for the implementation of policies and procedures and
access to services that women who have been subjected to
violence often need, including housing, medical care and social
services.
Human rights law and standards are also important in advocacy
for the fine details of implementation of human rights in
practice, such as allocation of tasks and responsibility to
various State agencies, ensuring sufficient financial and human
resourcing and including effective training. This is most
effective when there are specific oversight mechanisms
assessing the effectiveness of State action to implement the
principles of equality and non-discrimination. Where specific
oversight mechanisms are lacking, the CEDAW Committee has
indicated that States must:
“…develop effective and independent mechanisms to
observe and monitor women’s access to justice in order
to ensure that justice systems are in accordance with
the principles of justiciability, availability, accessibility,
good quality and effectiveness of remedies. This
includes the periodical audit/review of the autonomy,
efficiency and transparency of the judicial, quasi-judicial
mechanisms as magistrates, judges, prosecutors, public defenders,
lawyers, administrators, mediators, law enforcement officials, judicial
and penal officials and expert practitioners, as well as in other
professional capacities”.
19
UNIFEM “Who answers to women? Gender and Accountability”,
above note 17, page 3.