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Even as their rights are under attack, women across the world are leading the charge to expand access to justice. Credit: UNDP Somalia

By Revai Makanje Aalbaek and Sarah Douglas
NEW YORK, Nov 18 2025 (IPS)

Even as their rights face growing threats, women across the globe are driving progress. From courtrooms to communities, women’s leadership is shaping peace, justice and development—often against the odds. In the face of conflict, exclusion and inequality, we continue to see powerful stories of hope, resilience and change. We are inspired by women who mediate local disputes, push for new laws and champion the rights of survivors, holding communities together.

These stories remind us that we achieve our best results when working together, especially when the task ahead is the elimination of deeply rooted and widespread barriers. The UNDP and UN Women Gender Justice Platform – made possible thanks to generous support from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom—continues to support access to justice and women’s leadership in rule of law institutions in over 45 countries globally, proving that cross border solidarity can dismantle even the most entrenched inequality.

1. Women at the forefront of transitional justice in South Sudan

In the context of the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and its 2022 Roadmap Agreement, peacebuilding in South Sudan is ongoing, including efforts to deliver transitional justice and community reconciliation.

To safeguard women’s participation in decision-making in these processes, the Gender Justice Platform has supported key legal advancements. In 2024, South Sudan’s parliament adopted two laws guaranteeing that women have a seat and a voice in the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing and the Compensation and Reparations Authority.

The laws explicitly recognize the distinct impacts of conflict on women, offering special protection for victims and witnesses, particularly for women, children and persons with disabilities.

The laws were informed by recommendations put forward by South Sudanese women as a result of a consultation on gender-responsive and survivor-centred transitional justice, co-hosted in June 2023 by the Gender Justice Platform.

These laws mark a major step toward ensuring that women, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, shape how truth-telling occurs and reparations are delivered, and that women’s leadership is woven into South Sudan’s journey toward justice, reconciliation and peace.

Through the Gender Justice Platform, UNDP and UN Women have empowered women to participate in transitional justice processes in more than 20 countries, including Colombia, Ethiopia, Liberia and Mali.

2. Expanding access to justice in Tanzania

In Tanzania, women and underrepresented groups, including women with disabilities, often face deep-rooted barriers to justice. To address them, UN Women worked closely with the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs, boosting its legal aid and awareness campaign to reach more than 56,000 people, half of them women and girls. Critical issues were on the agenda, including land and property disputes, inheritance, family matters and gender-based violence.

In Tanzania, paralegals and social workers deliver legal aid and raise awareness on women’s rights. Credit: UN Women/Hanna Mtango

For lasting impact, the Gender Justice Platform empowered local champions – paralegals, aid providers and community social workers – to deliver legal aid and raise awareness on women’s rights, justice and social norms.

Complementing this, strategic training for judges on gender responsive sentencing ensures that women’s needs are considered when cases reach court. Together, these efforts show that sustainable justice must integrate both formal and informal systems to be effective and trusted.

3. Women mediators in Yemen help women resolve legal disputes

The space for women’s rights is restricted in Yemen. As around 80 percent of disputes in the country are resolved through community-based mechanisms, UNDP supported women mediators and paralegals to provide services though these customary and informal networks.

In 2024 alone, women mediators and paralegals resolved over 1,200 local disputes, primarily family-related, in partnership with local civil society organizations such as the Youth Horizon Foundation, making this initiative a critical lifeline for those most in need.

Women paralegals are working as insider-mediators to build peace in a bottom-up manner, contributing to the overall stabilization of the country.

Through the Gender Justice Platform, UNDP assisted about 300 women held in a prison, many of whom are there with their children. With UNICEF and civil society, UNDP advocated to facilitate the release and reintegration of wrongfully detained women, restoring dignity and family connections.

One woman, for example, spent an additional seven years in the prison after completing her sentence, as no one from her family would come for her. With UNDP support, Yemen Women Union (YWU) reconciled the woman with her family, and she was released.

4. Championing women’s leadership in South East Asia

In courtrooms across Southeast Asia, women judges are reshaping justice. In Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand, they are building mentoring networks to ensure the law reflects women’s lived realities.

Their enthusiasm and professionalism sparked the Women’s Leadership in the Judiciary initiative, along with a storytelling campaign through which women judges share their personal stories.

“To ensure gender justice,” explains Sapana Pradhan Malla of Nepal, “our first step was to make sure that the law reflects women’s experience and perspective, without exclusion or discrimination against women.”

By amplifying women’s voices, the Gender Justice Platform is nurturing a new generation of women leaders who are supporting the transformation of the judiciary from within.

5. Civil society advancing gender justice in Colombia

The Gender Justice Platform supports women’s civil society organizations that translate global commitments into local, feminist action, ensuring survivors’ voices shape every step of the justice process. In Colombia, the Alliance Initiative of Women for Peace brings together 248 organizations of survivors, activists and lawyers.

In 2024, with support from the Gender Justice Platform, the Alliance worked alongside survivors of sexual violence and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Colombia’s transitional justice tribunal, to ensure full and restorative participation.

As Alliance Director Angela Cerón Lasprilla explains, “Knowing I was not the only survivor, that what happened was not my fault and that I am a human being, that I matter—it’s only possible to acknowledge that if you have the support.”

Advancing women’s rights benefits everyone. Evidence shows that the advancement of women’s rights fosters equality, economic growth and opportunities for all. When women have unimpeded access to their rights, including justice and security, societies have a better chance to prosper, live in peace and enjoy development.

Explore the 2024 annual report of the Gender Justice Platform to see and celebrate what we achieved together. Along with our partners, we will continue to foster change for women and their active participation in justice efforts, guided by the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Revai Makanje Aalbaek is Senior Advisor on Justice and Security, UNDP Crisis Bureau;
Sarah Douglas is Deputy Chief, Peace, Security and Resilience Section, UN Women

The Gender Justice Platform is implemented under the framework of UNDP’s Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Justice and Security for Sustainable Peace and Development.

Source: UNDP

IPS UN Bureau

 

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