Improving the protection of women’s human rights is underpinned by legal system reform, and there are many examples of how the legal landscape has undergone important change within recent decades at the international, regional and national levels. For instance, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is not yet 40 years old. Yet during the Convention’s lifetime more than half of the world’s constitutions have been redrafted or amended, an opportunity that has been seized upon by women to write gender equality into the legal fabric of their countries. Around three-quarters of national constitutions guarantee equality between women and men, and almost two-thirds of nations have passed laws on domestic violence, paving the way for women the world over to claim redress for violations of their rights. 

The “Training Manual for Judges and Prosecutors on ensuring women’s access to justice” was created through the project “Improving Women’s Access to Justice in the Six Eastern Partnership Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus)” is a co-operative regional initiative between the Council of Europe and the European Union under the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG). It is available in English.