Gender, Judging and the Courts in Africa

Abstract

Judges play critical roles as custodians of law and justice. The judicial oath places a duty on judges to apply the law equally, and without fear or favor. The generally held view on gender and judging, however, indicate that the law may not always be applied fairly in matters relating to women and other minorities. This book comes at a time when the world is reawakening to discussions on the rights of women, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapters provide theoretical and practical analyses and entry points for expanding our understanding of how judges apply the law and the potential for judicial interpretation to either promote women's rights or diminish them. This book is a must-read for judicial officers, gender advocates, experts interested in judicial policy, judicial training, and judicial institutional development. It touches on issues at the intersection of gender, law, and development across Africa."Justice Georgina Theodora Wood (Rtd.) (SOG, LLD (honoris causa), Former Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana "A rich, timely, thoughtful, lively and diverse compendium of papers examining the multiplicity of questions at the core of constitutional rights and freedoms across the African continent today. The book excellently captures the main issues raised at the conference in Arusha which illuminated the gaps in law and practice towards full and meaningful achievement of women's rights. It highlights the slow but steady advances being made in the gender awareness of judges in Africa, while calling to action the need for more gender-sensitive training for judicial officers." Justice Albie Sachs (Rtd.), Constitutional Court of South AfricaWomen judges are playing increasingly prominent roles in many African judiciaries, yet there remains very little comparative research on the subject. Drawing on extensive cross-national data and theoretical and empirical analysis, this book provides a timely and broad-ranging assessment of gender and judging in African judiciaries.Employing different theoretical approaches, the book investigates how women have fared within domestic African judiciaries as both actors and litigants. It explores how women negotiate multiple hierarchies to access the judiciary, and how gender-related issues are handled in courts. The chapters in the book provide policy, theoretical and practical prescriptions to the challenges identified, and offer recommendations for the future directions of gender and judging in the post-COVID-19 era, including the role of technology, artificial intelligence, social media, and institutional transformations that can help promote women's rights.Bringing together specific cases from Kenya,

Vulnerability to violence against women or girls during COVID-19 in Uganda

“…GBV is a form of gender inequality that threatens sustainable development [ 21 ]. This paper seeks to enrich the existing literature by examining the factors that increased vulnerability to GBV during COVID-19 pandemic.…”