On 17 November 2023, non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) from the Western Balkans joined online the Council of Europe teams working on gender equality, anti-discrimination, children’s rights and civil society to identify strategic areas and methods for local NGOs to interact with legal professionals on tackling barriers and challenges women face when accessing justice. The meeting addressed the important role of NGOs in supporting legal professionals to apply Council of Europe standards on equal access to justice and gender equality. Furthermore, it gathered promising NGO practices in engaging with legal professionals.
Several recommendations were identified including:
- Give more visibility to NGOs’ work through Council of Europe reports by including the importance of collaboration between NGOs and legal professionals to address gendered barriers to access to justice, effectively, in its capacity building efforts;
- Engage NGOs for their expertise on equal footing with other experts in Council of Europe work;
- Consult regularly with NGOs to assess the implementation of gender responsive justice practices and use the feedback to adapt strategies and address emerging issues.
The meeting also introduced NGOs to the methodology and toolkit for civil society organisations, developed by the Council of Europe in co-operation with Women Against Violence Europe Network (WAVE) and UN Women, to run awareness raising campaigns to promote the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) including the barriers to women’s access to justice.
This activity was implemented in the framework of the EU and Council of Europe joint Horizontal Facility III programme – regional action on “Women’s access to justice in the Western Balkans".
