This chapter focuses on measures and initiatives implemented by countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to strengthen victim/survivor-centred access to justice and accountability. It examines the efforts made, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure access to judicial systems and relevant legal services to all victims/survivors.
Tackling Violence Against Women in the Middle East and North Africa
3. Ensuring access to justice for victims/survivors and holding perpetrators accountable in the Middle East and North Africa region
Abstract
Key findings
Women who are victims/survivors of VAW face several financial, social, and institutional barriers, including discriminatory biases and norms within the legal system or economic vulnerability limiting victims/survivors’ access to justice. Victims/survivors of VAW also have complex legal needs, due to complex, often parallel criminal and civil proceedings.
Integrated, specialised courts can alleviate burdens and barriers felt by victims/survivors through simplified procedures and can also provide more long-term solutions by aiming to solve root causes of incidences of violence. However, this practice is underused by MENA countries.
All surveyed MENA countries have stepped up efforts to facilitate victims/survivors' access to information about their rights and legal proceedings, including through digital solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is room to expand legal assistance to inform and help victims/survivors in their legal needs.
Adequately trained police units are a first, essential step in providing well-informed, efficient ways to protect victims/survivors. While VAW specialised police units have been institutionalised across most surveyed MENA countries, there is scope to further strengthen the capacity of actors tasked with preventing, identifying and responding to VAW.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided impetus to introduce innovative, digital court services in the surveyed MENA countries, which can combat financial or mobility barriers faced by victims/survivors, but proved to be incomplete solutions to the consequences of the postponement of judicial proceedings due to the crisis. The digitalisation of the judicial systems can be a long-term strategy to facilitate victims/survivors’ access to justice. However, several of these digital initiatives were discontinued after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3.1. Access to justice for victims/survivors: key elements
Ensuring victims/survivors’ access to justice implies an explicit recognition of the latter’s legal and social needs and requires that clear strategies be put in place to remove some of the practical and institutional barriers they face (OECD, 2021[1]). Such strategies may include the provision of free legal aid; the delivery of campaigns that disseminate legal information; or the maintenance of judicial services for victims/survivors even in cases where major events disrupt public institutions’ functioning by prioritising VAW cases. To ensure accountability for perpetrators of VAW, legislations should criminalise multiple forms of VAW (including, but not limited to marital rape, harassment and stalking, and technology-facilitated violence) and guarantee substantial sanctions for perpetrators, while providing clear guidelines for the interpretation of the law. Legislation should also provide for protection mechanisms such as ancillary orders, including protective or removal orders (OECD, 2021[1]).
Authorities’ efforts to bring justice to victims/survivors are particularly important in MENA where domestic violence is alarmingly under-reported (see previous subsection on Data collection and information sharing), and hence unpunished, due to social norms, economic dependency on abusers, and distrust in law enforcement authorities (ESCWA, 2020[2]). It is important for governments to prioritise the accessibility of justice for victims/survivors, as the presence of real or perceived impunity dangerously encourages abusers to perpetuate further acts of violence against women, ultimately contributing to the grave risks of femicide/feminicide.
In addition, access to justice should be unconditional and resilient in emergency contexts. A survey conducted by UN Women in 2020, in consultation with 220 NGOs across 15 MENA countries – including Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Morocco – found that policing and justice services had been restricted at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis which, further limited survivors’ already scarce access to protection and justice (ESCWA, 2020[2]). Morocco nevertheless reported facilitating remote access to justice during the lockdown, notably through the implementation of the remote trial system.
3.1.1. Addressing victims/survivors’ complex needs
Women, especially in VAW cases, face convoluted financial, social and institutional barriers that make it harder for them to access justice than for men. These barriers include a lack of adaptability of the justice system to ensure legal representation, discriminatory biases and norms within the legal system, social stigmatisation, and limited resources to support victims/survivors.
Economic vulnerability, resulting from victims/survivors’ limited access to employment opportunities or financial resources (notably due to abusers’ control over them), is a particularly common challenge for women who experience VAW. Many victims/survivors are economically dependent on their abusers, restricting their ability to pursue legal action against them.
Moreover, seeking justice for victims/survivors is a particularly complex process due to the multi-faceted nature of VAW cases. Domestic violence cases involve not only the criminal justice system but also intersect with civil matters such as divorce, child custody, and restraining orders (OECD, 2021[1]). Child custody can present a particularly complex matter: the risk of losing it may inhibit victims/survivors of pursuing a divorce from an offender in the case of domestic violence, thus limiting the victim/survivor’s access to justice (OECD, 2023[3]).The parallel processes create additional complexities, requiring survivors to navigate multiple legal procedures simultaneously. This intricacy can be dissuasively overwhelming, time-consuming, and emotionally draining for victims/survivors, making it more difficult for them to access justice.
Overall, the combination of barriers to victims/survivors’ access to justice makes it all the more urgent to see legal systems adapt to their complex needs to avoid double victimisation and foster trust in justice institutions. As such, a victim/survivor-centred approach to VAW should pursue arrangements to adapt its justice system and help victims/survivors overcome existent barriers to legal assistance and protection services, including in times of crises.
Access to information and legal aid
In all surveyed MENA countries, the pandemic has reportedly compelled governments to scale up dissemination efforts to ensure the delivery of information about victims/survivors’ rights through hotlines and the integration of legal assistance within other services provided to survivors (Figure 3.1).
In Morocco, the Ministry of Public Affairs diffused 95 telephone numbers and email addresses which victims/survivors could reach in order to issue complaints via their online website and TV sports (UN Women, 2020[4]). In Tunisia, complaints were reportedly treated with priority in tribunals. In Lebanon, the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) have joined efforts to raise awareness on the national ISF hotline on domestic violence (1745), and to encourage victims/survivors’ and witnesses’ reporting of domestic violence. Egypt’s One-Stop-Centre (Box 2.3) notably referred victims/survivors to legal aid service-providers.
Moreover, 5 out of 7 surveyed MENA countries aimed to ensure the provision of free legal aid for criminal and/or civil proceedings to victims/survivors. In Jordan, while legal aid is provided to women for criminal and non-criminal legal proceedings, the latter is conditional upon their financial vulnerability. Similarly, in Bahrain, the Judicial Aid Committee (formed at the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqf1) assigned lawyers to assist and represent victims/survivors in need through family reconciliation and amicable settlements and further litigations.
In Lebanon, a project launched in 2020 with the support of the European Union and the National Commission for Lebanese Women, effectively trained a team of 53 lawyers to provide legal aid to domestic violence victims/survivors before civil and religious courts. In 2021, the team of lawyers has, in turn, formed and trained a taskforce of lawyers to provide voluntarily legal support to domestic violence victims/survivors. However, funding discontinuance and the wider economic crisis plaguing the country have curtailed lawyers’ ability to engage in voluntary work and put a stall on the project. As of September 2022, the National Commission for Lebanese Women was seeking funds to ensure the projects’ viability.
Despite the remarkable improvements in institutional practices efforts to widen victims/survivors’ access to crucial justice information, some gaps in access to justice information and services remain to be addressed. To promote a victim/survivor-centred approach to addressing VAW, MENA countries should put in place legal assistance mechanisms that are responsive to their needs and make efforts to ensure that victims/survivors be adequately informed about legal aid available to them for both civil and criminal law needs.
Integration of justice services
The concept of integrated justice pathways holds the promise of establishing justice systems that prioritise the needs and experiences of victims and survivors. This approach seeks to streamline processes and alleviate the challenges faced by those affected. It promotes a holistic perspective in which legal and justice services operate as integral components of a unified system. This system facilitates smooth referrals and transitions of legal matters within a continuum of services, all grounded in collaborative efforts among legal professionals, justice providers, and various other human service agencies. By adopting such an integrated approach, the aim is to create a more supportive and responsive environment for individuals seeking justice (OECD, 2021[1]). Integration of justice services can start at the police service, which can be integrated with VAW-related services and can help provide better support for victims/survivors and alleviate administrative burdens, while freeing up resources to offer more training for police services (OECD, 2023[5]). Further down the justice system supply chain, integrated advocacy services can combat barriers to justice for victims/survivors, and specialised courts, such as domestic violence courts, can simplify legal procedures, allow for more tailored follow-ups from judges (OECD, 2023[5]) (OECD, 2023[3]). Domestic violence courts place a strong emphasis on safeguarding the victim/survivor and prioritise their well-being over the rehabilitation and recovery of the perpetrator. These protective measures encompass various services like counselling, shelter, and advocacy. In many cases, perpetrators are mandated to participate in intervention programs, and they are expected to provide progress reports to the judges presiding over domestic violence cases (OECD, 2016[6]).
Some surveyed MENA countries have introduced integrated justice solutions, but this practice remains underused in the region. Bahrain for example issued an order to allocate a building for family courts in 2018. The building includes all the judicial services related to the family system in order to facilitate procedures for lawyers. The Restorative Justice Courts headquarters and facilities designated to receive children and their families have been inaugurated in a manner that suits the interests of children and take into account the confidentiality and privacy of cases related to children and the family. Bahrain also has Family and Child Prosecution Offices concerned with investigating cases involving children under the age of fifteen, as well as crimes stipulated in the Child Law. The prosecutions ensure that children are treated appropriately with procedures and measures aimed at reform and protection. Tunisia reported having set up specific areas for women victims of violence in some courts of first instance, with the aim of applying this to all courts in the future. Box 3.1 provides examples of integrated justice in OECD countries.
Box 3.1. Practices in OECD countries in integrating justice pathways
One notable example of integrated justice solutions in OECD countries is the Family Justice Centre model. These centres offer victims/survivors of family violence a one-stop, comprehensive approach. They provide integrated services, including medical and legal support, counselling, court system access, and assistance with various other needs like public benefits and safety planning. The first Family Justice Centre was established in the United States in 2002, and several OECD countries, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, and Sweden, have also adopted this initiative.
In Belgium, French-speaking federated entities plan to support pilot projects that encourage co-ordinated care among professionals dealing with violence against women, including harmful practices. In the Brussels-Capital Region, an intersectoral approach is being developed to enhance collaboration between the public prosecutor's office, police, justice houses, support services, and local actors in complex intimate partner violence cases. In Flanders, the Family Justice Centre network brings together social services, police, and the justice system in a single location to address family violence and child abuse, with three operational centres.
In Italy, Family Justice Centres are legally defined and house multidisciplinary services under one roof. Various facilities, including the Soccorso Violenza Sessuale e Domestica del Policlinico (SVSeD), operate under this structure. SVSeD, part of the European Family Justice Alliance, aims to prevent domestic violence, raise awareness through training, and ensure the well-being of victims/survivors and their children through integrated services. SVSeD comprises a multidisciplinary team of medical professionals and social workers who provide health, medico-legal, psychological, and social support. Victims/survivors receive free legal advice from civil and criminal lawyers. SVSeD also conducts research on domestic violence and offers training for professionals in the social, health, judicial, and law enforcement sectors.
Source: (OECD, 2023[3]), Breaking the cycle of gender-based violence: Translating evidence into action for victim/survivor-centred governance.
Specialisation of police units
As the first point of contact for victims/survivors seeking help, the police play a crucial role in providing immediate and life-saving protection and ensuring perpetrators are held accountable (OECD, 2021[1]). Their preparedness to effectively detect cases of violence, assess risks, and intervene promptly can significantly impact the safety and survivals of the victims/survivors. Throughout their interactions with victims/survivors, the police’s professionalism, sensitivity, empathy, and ability to establish trust are crucial to preclude risks of non-reporting of VAW or complaint withdrawal. As such, it is essential that police officers of all levels be trained to understand power dynamics at work in abusive relationships and to interact in a trauma-sensitive and non-judgemental manner with victims/survivors, ultimately creating an environment where victims/survivors feel safe to report VAW.
As a primordial interlocutor in victims/survivors’ complaint-making processes, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime recommends that police officers or units be dedicated to the investigation of VAW cases (UNODC, 2010[7]). Such VAW specialised units or officers have been institutionalised across most of surveyed MENA countries – including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia.
In Morocco, after Law 103-13 relating to Violence Against Women was adopted in 2018, the General Directorate of National Security set up Police Units for Women Victims of Violence in 132 principal police stations across the country (UN Women Arab States, 2022[8]). VAW focal points were also designated in each of the 440 district police stations to refer survivors to the nearest specialised unit (UN Women Arab States, 2022[8]). These Police Units maintained their operations throughout the Pandemic and took measures allowing women to declare and file complaints remotely (UN Women Arab States, 2022[8]). In Jordan, the Public Security Directorate formed an emergency response team that included female officers and trained it to operate while navigating the constraints induced by the pandemic. The team reportedly conducted in-person outreach activities and support survivors by accompanying them to police stations or courts in person to ensure their safety amidst movement restrictions. In Tunisia, Law 58/2017 on the elimination of VAW promoted the establishment of 130 units specialising in the investigation of crimes against women and children.
In the future, MENA countries could consider further strengthening the capacity of actors involved in the prevention, identification and suppression of VAW, including the police, through specialised trainings so they can apply a victim/survivor-centred focus.
Digitalisation of services
At various extents across the MENA region, the impetus to digitalise a wide range of VAW support services under COVID-19 has expanded to include the judiciary system. Despite these notable efforts, to ensure victims/survivors fair access to justice (during but also beyond times of crises), there is still scope for MENA countries to make progress in expanding the digitalisation of their service provision. Moreover, monitoring and evaluation efforts should also be deployed to assess the impact of digitalised services, with particular attention to safety and privacy concerns entailed in the digitalisation of support services. Simultaneously, they should continue to provide face-to-face services to ensure that women from the most marginalised groups, who may have limited digital literacy or restricted access to technological devices, receive the support they are entitled to.
In Bahrain, the pandemic has impelled the Supreme Council for Women to digitalise the provision of its victims/survivors services through its Women’s Support Centre. It has developed its online platform and launched a mobile application to provide family, legal, social and psychological consultations and case work follow-ups (Supreme Council for Women, 2020[9]). The platform’s “Your Remote Advisor” programme dedicated a specialised team of volunteer consultants to provide virtual consultations to survivors, involving the provision of free legal aid on matters pertaining to alimony, divorce, custody, civil cases, and family mediation (ESCWA, 2020[2]).
Morocco’s “Kolona Maak” system (Box 2.4) helped connect complainants to courts in their respective jurisdictions and allowed survivors to submit urgent complaints remotely, without needing to present themselves to any court or police station (ESCWA, 2020[2]). However, non-governmental organisations have highlighted technical difficulties in the use of the electronic complaint mechanism, as well as its de facto exclusion of populations lacking literacy skills (UN Women, 2020[4]).
In April 2020 in Lebanon, pursuant to a ministerial note issued by the Prosecutor General, the police were instructed to immediately investigate all reported cases of domestic violence, including in cases of unwitnessed crimes, as well as permit victims’ hearings and testimonies through video technology or other means.
Going forward, MENA countries could build on the innovative measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve justice pathways for victims/survivors and continue expanding the digitalisation of their VAW support services, while considering privacy/safety and exclusion risks, as already discussed in the subsection on information and communication technology.
3.1.2. Adapting law enforcement systems
Around the world, temporary court closures induced by COVID-19 and the ensuing postponement of hearings have created a backlog of cases in the judiciary’s response to VAW, and hence, in the immediate and longer-term protection of survivors and prosecution of abusers. As such, in April 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General urged all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19, ensuring that judicial systems continue to prosecute abusers (United Nations, 2020[10]).
In Egypt, the 21 emergency response measures rolled out by the government in response to VAW included the exceptional openings of family courts.
In April 2020, the Cassation and the Supreme Judicial Council responded favourably to the National Commission for Lebanese Women’s request to allow complaints and hearings of domestic violence to be filed and delivered virtually (online, by phone, per e-mail). However, the Ministry of Justice did not publish any data on the number of hearings received virtually.
The same month, the Supreme Judicial Council allowed for urgent complaints to be submitted remotely, online, by phone or e-mail (ESCWA, 2020[2]). According to Lebanon’s survey response, this effectively enabled Lebanese judges to rule remotely, notably for the issuance of life-saving protection orders to victims/survivors. On April 23, 2020, the first online protection order was issued (Inter-Agency SGBV Task Force Lebanon, 2020[11]). Moreover, in reaction to the pandemic, in Lebanon judges have reportedly ordered forensic doctors to document physical abuse of survivors at police stations (KAFA, 2020[12]).
Although virtual hearings were discontinued after the cease of COVID-19 lockdowns in Lebanon, the provision of virtual court services in other MENA countries is embedded in longer-term ambitions for the judiciary system. In Bahrain, the pandemic gave the impetus to finalise the digital transformation of the judicial system, a project which was first rolled out by the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqf in 2015. Virtual court systems in Bahrain now permit the electronic filing of civil complaints in family courts and family reconciliation offices. In an apparent effort to institutionalise the use of virtual proceedings into its justice system, Jordan reported that its Ministry of Justice issued guidelines for the electronic filing of lawsuits. Following the establishment of eight digitised offices for the prosecution of family courts, Egypt plans to establish cyber courts and digital prosecution offices for family prosecution services in the fall of 2022.
While the digitalisation of court proceedings are promising practices to facilitate victims/survivors’ access to justice, limited availability of data on virtual hearings’ scale and results prevents a thorough assessment of their impact. It is unlikely that digitalisation efforts have sufficed to meet all victims/survivors’ needs. In Lebanon, court closures or reduced capacities reportedly led women to facing challenges in seeking legal redress against their perpetrators (UN Women, 2020[13]). In countries like Morocco, the postponement of judicial proceedings pertaining to divorce judgements or alimony requests has reportedly aggravated the economic violence exerted on victims/survivors (UN Women, 2020[4]). Morocco reported that a family solidarity fund gives financial aid to divorced women with children, until the father starts paying the child support.
Going forward, taking heed of the COVID-19 pandemic experience, it would be key for MENA countries to recognise adaptability and prioritisation as important elements to facilitating access to justice and keep working to make sure that survivors/victims have access to judicial systems and relevant legal services even during times of crisis, where major events disrupt the normal functioning of public institutions.
3.2. Way forward
To improve access to justice for victims/survivors, MENA countries could consider reinforcing systems to ensure that legal information is available and profusely and unconditionally available to women, regardless of their financial situation, location or literacy. This could be done by building on the remarkable improvements in institutional practices efforts to widen victims/survivors’ access to crucial justice information during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, in order to facilitate victims/survivors’ access to justice for interrelated criminal and non-criminal proceedings (VAW complaints, requests for divorce, child custody, alimony, and else), countries in the MENA region could further specialise and centralise prosecution and justice systems, for instance by considering the deployment of “one judge, one family” or other specialised courts.
References
[2] ESCWA (2020), Violence Against Women and Girls and Covid-19 in the Arab Region, https://www.unescwa.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pdf/violence-against-women-girls-covid-19-arab-region-english_0.pdf.
[11] Inter-Agency SGBV Task Force Lebanon (2020), Impact of COVID-19 on the SGBV Situation in Lebanon, https://arabstates.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Arab%20States/Attachments/Publications/2020/05/Impact%20of%20COVID%2019%20on%20SGBV_FINAL.pdf.
[12] KAFA (2020), Between the Corona epidemic, and that of domestic violence: Kafa’s March report., https://kafa.org.lb/en/node/407.
[3] OECD (2023), Breaking the Cycle of Gender-based Violence: Translating Evidence into Action for Victim/Survivor-centred Governance, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b133e75c-en.
[5] OECD (2023), Supporting Lives Free from Intimate Partner Violence: Towards Better Integration of Services for Victims/Survivors, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d61633e7-en.
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[6] OECD (2016), Implementing Joined-up Governance for a Common Purpose, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264260016-en.
[9] Supreme Council for Women (2020), Guide to the national response in support of women and the family in the kingdom of Bahrain in response to the (Covid-19) pandemic.
[13] UN Women (2020), Gender Alert on COVID-19 Lebanon (Issue no. 1 on Gender-Based Violence and Justice), https://arabstates.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Arab%20States/Attachments/Publications/2020/04/Gender%20and%20COVID-19%20in%20Lebanon/Updated/Gender%20Alert%20on%20COVIDLebanon%20English.pdf.
[4] UN Women (2020), Violences faites aux femmes et aux filles en temps de crise – l’expérience du confinement au Maroc, https://morocco.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Morocco/Documents/others/Violences%20faites%20aux%20femmes%20pendant%20le%20confinement%20au%20Maroc%20-%20Version%20Intgrale%20FR%20%281%29.pdf.
[8] UN Women Arab States (2022), Providing Survivor-Centered Police and Justice Services in Morocco.
[10] United Nations (2020), Secretary General’s Video Message on Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2020-04-05/secretary-generals-video-message-gender-based-violence-and-covid-19-scroll-down-for-french (accessed on 2023).
[7] UNODC (2010), Handbook on Effective Police Responses to Violence Against Women.
Note
← 1. The fully translated name of the ministry in English is: Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments.