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New York – On International Women’s Day, UNDP and UN Women launched the Gender Justice Platform to leverage their partnership on gender justice. Since 2020, UN Women and UNDP have joined together to enable access to justice for 42,000 individuals. In 14 conflict-affected contexts across Africa and the Middle East, UNDP and UN Women facilitated access to justice services and led advocacy initiatives to support women’s leadership.
The launch of the Gender Justice Platform marks the extension of the scope of the partnership.
“Through the Platform, UN Women and UNDP are officially and publicly joining our efforts, and upscaling our work to ensure that rule of law systems work for women and girls, by harnessing our expertise and global reach to advance gender equality, human rights and the rule of law”, said Åsa Regnér, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.
Through the Gender Justice Platform, UN Women and UNDP will implement joint initiatives that seek to close the gender justice gap and empower women to know and exercise their rights. The purpose of the Platform is to bring together new and diverse stakeholders, including States, civil society, academia and UN entities, with a commitment to encourage and support rule of law systems that work for women and girls. Based on a people-centered approach, the Platform’s partners will seek to address the immediate justice needs of women and girls, while also strengthening rule of law institutions and legal frameworks.
The Platform’s partners will also work to increase the public accountability of justice systems, and to support women leaders, civil society, and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence to participate meaningfully in shaping justice and security institutions, processes and outcomes.
The Gender Justice Platform will facilitate implementation of the women, peace and security agenda by supporting women’s meaningful participation in justice processes in conflict-affected and peacebuilding contexts, and enhancing access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
The first joint publication of the platform is a report, Women’s Meaningful Participation in Transitional Justice: Advancing Gender Equality and Building Sustaining Peace. With case studies from Guatemala, Sri Lanka, The Gambia, Tunisia, the report provides a roadmap for the UN to promote women leadership in transitional justice. It concludes that women’s participation in transitional justice is a human right, which can ultimately contribute to more inclusive transitional justice processes for everyone.
“Evidence has shown us that women’s empowerment in justice and transitional justice actually led to more peaceful societies for all, not just for women. For real transformational changes, women should not only have a seat at the table – we need their voices to be heard to influence and lead the way to more just and inclusive processes”, said Asako Okai, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator, and Director, Crisis Bureau, UNDP.
The activities of the platform will be implemented through UNDP’s Global Programme for Rule of Law, Human Rights, Justice and Security for Sustainable Peace and Development in coordination with the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law and with the financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands.
UNDP and UN Women invite all interested donors and partners to join the new Gender Justice Platform to position gender equality and women's leadership for years to come.
For additional information, please contact Lorena Mellado, Policy specialist on Rule of Law, Justice & Human Rights, UNDP at lorena.mellado@undp.org and Emily Kenney, Policy Specialist, Rule of Law and Transitional Justice, UN Women at emily.kenney@unwomen.org .
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is the global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential