Engendering access to justice for the poorest and most vulnerable in sub-Saharan Africa

Publication title information

Mwambene, Lea with Lawson, D, Dubin, A and Woldemicheal, B (2020). ‘Engendering access to justice for the poorest and most vulnerable in sub-Saharan Africa’. In Lawson, Dubin and Mwambene (eds) Gender, Poverty, and Access to Justice: Policy Implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Routledge.

Further detail

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Books and chapters

Description

This chapter provides the context from which the volume evolved, as well as the situational backdrop for the chapters that follow. It highlights the fact that access to justice is an enabling right relevant to the attainment of all Sustainable Development Goals, but that it is all too commonly intertwined with key socio-economic factors and poverty, resulting in both direct and indirect manifestations of discrimination and lack of access. Rather than adopting an exclusively legalistic approach, the volume features a series of multidisciplinary, country case studies, analysing the varying and complicated factors limiting access to justice for children and women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In recognising that access to justice is a transversal and essential element in achieving both rights and development goals, this volume seeks to (1) explore the intersections of poverty, gender and access to justice in the sub-Saharan region; (2) raise awareness of the problems faced by women and children in the region’s justice system; (3) analyse both the policies that have worked and those that have failed, and by doing so support future programmes, policies and discourses aimed at improving the rule of law and equality of justice, as well as halting the multidimensional deprivations that create a compounded cycle of poverty for women (and a large segment of the population generally) in SSA; and (4) encourage policy makers and development practitioners to identify projects, programmes and policies that can assist towards the above aims over the next few years.

About the author/s

Lea Mwambene

Lea Mwambene is a Professor of Law in the Department of Private Law and currently the Deputy Dean: Teaching and Learning of UWC Law Faculty. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4822-5394

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