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

V
WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 19
On 20 December 1993, all States gave their agreement to the
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. 23
The Declaration recognizes that:
“…violence against women is a manifestation of
historically unequal power relations between men and
women, which have led to domination over and
discrimination against women by men and to the
prevention of the full advancement of women, and that
violence against women is one of the crucial social
mechanisms by which women are forced into a
subordinate position compared with men.” 24
“Every woman has the right to be free from violence in both
the public and the private sphere”. 25
Ensuring women’s access to justice for gender-based violence
requires States to develop and actively implement policies to
promote gender equality and to eradicate gender inequality. 26
Laws, practices and initiatives to eradicate gender-based
violence are unlikely to succeed without an accurate awareness
of the limitations of women’s lives, how their freedom of choice
and action is limited, and the way that gender-based violence
supports discrimination and bring benefits to dominant men.
The CEDAW Committee has affirmed that States must “conduct
and facilitate qualitative studies and critical gender analysis in
collaboration with civil society organizations as well as
academic institutions of all justice systems in order to highlight
practices, procedures and jurisprudence that promote or limit
women’s full access to justice; and systematically apply the
findings of this analysis in order to develop priorities, policies,
23
UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women,
adopted by the General Assembly under resolution 48/104 (1993).
24
Ibid, preambular paragraph 6.
25
Convention of Belém do Pará, above note 16, Article 3.
26
CEDAW Convention, Article 2.