Women's Rights

Women in transitioning countries are often disproportionately affected by such problems as domestic violence, employment discrimination, sexual harassment in the workplace and trafficking. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative seeks to enhance the legal status of women so that their rights are protected as guaranteed by law.

Lack of gender equality and respect for women's rights is a major stumbling block to the rule of law, personal well-being, and development around the globe. Societies with greater gender inequality face a higher incidence of poverty, malnutrition, and ill health and have lower educational attainment. They also experience slower economic growth and weaker governance.

Achieving gender equality is a challenge in a majority of countries in which the ABA Rule of Law Initiative works. For example, while constitutions in post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia largely guarantee women and men equal protection under the law, laws protecting women against discrimination are seldom enforced. Women face significant discrimination in employment, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), there has been progress on improving gender equality in recent decades, including a sharp rise in the number of educated women. Women in the MENA region, however, face significant legal barriers to their equal participation in society. Women's rights abuses include discrimination, obstacles to or outright denial of political participation, gender-based violence, and lack of access to justice. In these regions as elsewhere in the world, many governments have only a tenuous commitment to women's human rights. Ensuring full respect for women's rights and gender equality is essential to building the rule of law.

In response to these challenges, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has developed a wide array of programming, as described below. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative intends to build on its successful programs and expand its work to advance women's rights and gender equality around the world.

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a global problem that affects women around the world. Studies show that between 25 and 50 percent of all women in the world have been abused by intimate partners. Approximately 95 percent of the victims of domestic violence are women. Under international human rights standards, domestic violence, once viewed as purely a private matter, is now seen as an issue of state responsibility. Governments are charged with prosecuting the perpetrators of domestic violence and providing redress and protection to victims of violence. Many countries have made strong statements about defending women's rights, but few states acknowledge the extent of the domestic violence problem or take action to combat it.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative works with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government officials to improve the response to domestic violence. For example in Georgia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative supported the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) in developing draft legislation on domestic violence, which has since been enacted. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative is now providing assistance to GYLA as it develops an implementation plan and provides training to educate legal professionals on domestic violence and the new legislation. On March 8, 2006 in Georgia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative hosted A Happy Family is a Happy Future, an awareness event in which 20 local organizations presented information and resources on domestic violence to members of the Parliament, police, and other government agencies.

In China, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative is supporting local partners on legislative research and advocacy and training activities aimed at protecting women from sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2005, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative held a program in partnership with the Sichuan Lawyers' Association and the China Network for Combating Domestic Violence on public interest litigation and protection of women's rights. Through discussions of concrete ways to overcome obstacles to public interest representation in China, participants improved their legal skills as women's rights lawyers and as policy reform advocates.

Improving Women's Access to the Legal System

Improving women's ability to access legal remedies is an important component of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative's gender and women's rights programs. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative has developed innovative programs to improve women's access to justice by reaching out to them at non-traditional locations where other services are provided.

To increase the access of women to the law, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative helped to start Women’s Legal Rights NGO “INIS” in Tajikistan, with support from USDOS/DRL, which aims at empowering local women to assert and effectively pursue their legal rights.

In Tajikistan, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative sponsored the creation of INIS, an independent, indigenous NGO that operates women's legal advocacy centers in Dushanbe and Khujand. INIS lawyers provide consultations to women through a network of existing crisis centers, shelters, health care facilities, and community and women's centers. With the support of ABA Rule of Law Initiative staff, they undertake strategic litigation in the women's rights field and play a role in developing and advocating for improved government policies on women's rights.

In Georgia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative supports the Women's Rights Advocacy Center run by the Center for the Protection of Constitutional Rights (CPCR). The center provides legal counseling and court representation to women on labor law, family law, domestic violence, and bride kidnapping. The Center also operates a hotline to provide women with anonymous counseling and distributes information on women's rights. CPCR has also conducted a series of workshops on women's rights to reach women in the various regions of Georgia.

In Russia, the ABA `Rule of Law Initiative's Social Advocates Program provides basic legal training for Russian activists on women's rights issues, focusing primarily on the representation of domestic violence victims. The training program created a group of non-lawyer advocates who can provide competent legal information and effective advocacy for Russian women when the services of professional paid attorneys are unavailable or are simply not affordable. Since the creation of the social advocates program in 1999, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has graduated more than 100 participants and developed a training manual and newsletter to encourage the development of the program.

Supporting the Development of Women as Legal Professionals

Law is not traditionally viewed as an appropriate career for women in many countries where the ABA Rule of Law Initiative operates. For example, women in the legal profession in the MENA region have traditionally experienced difficulty advancing professionally and obtaining equal compensation. In fact, their ability to participate in the legal profession varies throughout the region.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative helps support the development of women legal professionals in several countries, including Oman and Yemen. In Morocco, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative works to strengthen the role and effectiveness of Moroccan women legal professionals and to harness their potential to promote women's rights. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative activities include training sessions on women's rights issues for women legal professionals in partnership with bar associations and civil society organizations, as well as training activities focusing on the Moroccan family code. Regionally, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative provides financial and technical support to the Arab Women's Legal Network (AWLN), a nongovernmental regional entity that aims to facilitate the advancement of Arab women working in the legal field. Registered and headquartered in Amman, Jordan since July 2005, the AWLN has now close to 300 members from 15 countries and has held numerous professional development and skills training programs in the MENA region.

CEDAW Assessment Tool and Advocacy for Women's Equality through CEDAW

In 2002, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative developed and published the CEDAW Assessment Tool, which is designed to measure a country's de jure and de facto compliance with the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The ABA Rule of Law Initiative piloted the CEDAW Assessment Tool in Armenia, where it proved to be an important capacity-building project for the ABA Rule of Law Initiative's local partners and the broader women's rights community. To date, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has implemented the CEDAW Assessment Tool in Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Serbia, and has conducted a related women's rights assessment in Iraq (see below).

The final CEDAW Assessment Tool reports reflect several months of research as well as close collaboration with local partners. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative has successfully leveraged the CEDAW Assessment Tool process to encourage the submission of NGO shadow reports by local organizations to the U.N. CEDAW Committee. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative assisted NGOs in preparing shadow reports in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Additionally, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has promoted CEDAW as an advocacy tool to improve respect for women's rights and women's legal equality. In December 2005, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative hosted a conference in Azerbaijan on CEDAW that encouraged a dialogue between NGOs and the government on the country's compliance with its legal obligations under CEDAW.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative's Iraq Legal Development Program (ILDP) completed a related assessment measuring Iraq's compliance with internationally accepted standards of gender equality as outlined in the core international human rights instruments to which Iraq is a party. The Assessment of the Status of Women in Iraq was published in 2005 in both English and Arabic. A December 2006 Update will be available shortly.

Human Trafficking Assessment Tool

In 2004, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative developed an assessment tool based on the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ("Trafficking Protocol"). In October 2004, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative implemented its Human Trafficking Assessment Tool (HTAT), which measures a country's de jure and de facto compliance with the Trafficking Protocol, in Moldova. During the assessment process, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative interviewed a substantial number of government officials and NGO representatives to gauge the obstacles hindering efforts to combat human trafficking. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative issued recommendations in its final report that were reviewed by participants in the HTAT assessment process during a workshop held in Chisinau. The vast majority of these recommendations were incorporated into the Government of Moldova's National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons for 2005-2007. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative is using the HTAT report to guide future programming on this issue in Moldova.