Advancing Women's Access to Justice: Building justice systems that deliver for all including in fragile contexts (CSW70 Side Event)

Okay. Good morning. I think we are going to start. Yeah. Everybody settle down.

Everybody has a seat. A place, corner even. Okay. Good morning. Good morning everyone.

Excellencies, colleagues and friends. Welcome to this CSW 70 event on advancing women's access to justice. Building justice systems that deliver for all, including in crisis and fragile settings. This is a very warm welcome to people here in the room, but also people that is joining us online. Thank you for connecting from a very, very different time zones.

My name is Raquel Lagunas. I'm the Director of Gender Equality at undp and I will be moderating this discussion. This event is convened by UNDP together with UN women, with the government of Brazil, the Kingdom of Netherlands and Ukraine. Thank you to our partners for the leadership. We are very proud and happy that you are here.

And we will begin with the opening remarks. We have a very interesting panel event with panelists from diverse places. And then closing reflections from also our organization from undp. I'm going to go to the first opening. It is really a great pleasure to invite Sima Bahus, Executive Director of UN Women, to do the opening.

Over to you, Sima.

Thank you. Thank you, Raquel.

Good morning everyone. It's great to be here this morning, isn't it? For all women and girls. We are all gathered here. Your Excellency, Ambassador hoff, colleague Alexander DeCruw, UNDP administrator, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.

It is indeed an honor to be among you here this morning and to open this discussion with UNDP and with the governments of Brazil, Netherlands and Ukraine. Today we have a simple but powerful tool and goal to recommit to justice for women and girls in conflict, in crises and fragility. These are the women our systems must be built to reach first. This year marks 25 years of Security Council Resolution 1325. It changed how the world sees women's leadership in peace and in security.

For 15 years, UN Women has coordinated this agenda across the UN system. We have seen how women shape peace, how they reform laws, how they open doors to justice and also shape peace agreements. Their leadership makes society stronger and more resilient. Yet the justice gap, ladies and gentlemen, remains vast. In conflict affected settings, more than 60% of women report unmet legal needs.

And today, over 676 million women live close to deadly conflict, the highest number ever recorded. Discriminatory laws, high legal costs, corruption, stigma and insecurity, all standards in their way for many women this is daily life Excellencies. As we have heard over the past days time and time again, women do not stop. They persist. And they lead.

Our new report, entitled Advancing Gender Equality through Legislative Reform in Transitional Justice Context, based on work in more than 20 countries, shows us something important. Legal change works only when women's movements, political will and sustained financing come together. Women are not just asking for justice. They are designing justice systems that work. This must guide us.

Justice reforms must begin with women and and girls and with their needs and priorities. It means restoring identity documents. It means protecting land rights and children's safety. It means creating spaces where women can speak safely and have their rights enforced. It also means women's leadership at every level as judges, prosecutors, mediators and human rights defenders.

And above all, justice must be accessible legally, financially, geographically and digitally. I am proud that un women and UNDP are advancing this work through the justice the Gender justice platform. We are active in more than 40 fragile countries. We support survivor centered procedures, expand legal aid and help women access transitional justice. And justice cannot exist only on paper.

It must be reachable in real life. And accountability for sexual violence, displacement, discriminatory laws and corruption must never be optional. No single institution, as you all know, can do this alone. We need alignment across humanitarian, human rights, peace and development efforts. So let our Message at this CSW70 Be clear.

When we start with women and girls, and when we stay with them, justice systems can rebuild trust, repair the social contract and help deliver peace. Excellencies and partners, I leave you with this call. Let us design justice systems that reach women where they are. Let us fund women's legal empowerment and the movements that drive reform. Let us place accountability at the center of every process.

And let us make justice a reality, not a promise. And I thank you.

Thank you so much for being this strong voice and this strong leader. Expanding rights of women across the world. And now it is really my pleasure to invite Alexander de Cru, Administrator of undp, to do his opening remarks. Since taking up this role, the Administrator has made very clear that gender equality is a priority for him, is a priority for undp, including in frail and conflict context. So over to you and thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Raquel. And thank you for inviting me. Dear Sima, it's always good to sit at your side. And thank you to our Brazilian, Ukrainian and Dutch and Dutch friends, how much I all like you in this room.

There is one problem is that there's almost no men. And that's an issue because the topic we talk about is not a topic that is only affecting women. And especially the solution is not going to come only from women. The solution will also come from men who understands that it is also our role to fight for this topic and that it's in benefit of society. Not only in benefit of society, it's also in the benefit of men.

You know, over the past years we've often talked about pandemics and about the impact that pandemics have. And Covid obviously was a gigantic impact. Violence against women and girls is a pandemic. The difference is that Covid took two years. The pandemic of violence against women and girls is permanent.

And the cost of that is a gigantic one. So the economic cost of violence against women and girls is 1.5 trillion. It's 2% of GDP and that's the economic cost. Besides the economic cost, you have the human cost, you have the dignity cost. I mean, there's many things that GDP does not, does not take.

And in some countries it's actually more than 2%. In conflict affected countries, very often it's 3, sometimes 4%. And I always try the work that we do to move beyond the boardrooms and the meeting rooms. And if I just take two locations that I visited over the past weeks. Last week I was in Haiti, a country which is affected by a lot of gang violence.

We all know who bears the brunt of it. When there is conflict, it's women and girls who are the most impacted. And two weeks before I was in Gaza. And I think I don't have to explain how harsh the circumstances are for people who live there. And there also disproportionately women and girls are affected.

And we talk about this and we talk about violence against women and girls, but very often we are stuck in the symptoms. Because if you really want to solve the core issue, then justice is the discussion. And too often in conflict areas we say, well, you know, there is a lot of reconstruction that needs to happen. And we have a tendency to say, well, you know, reconstruction is first providing shelter and it's providing basic services and providing health care and all these things are very legitimate. But too often providing justice systems is at the end.

And that's a mistake. It's a mistake. If you do it at the end, there is no reason to wait until the end to do it. Doing it early on really is a priority. And it is in our crisis offer and our development offer for undp, it's something that we will always push to try to have as early as possible.

Because when you do recovery, when you do society building. And we believe that if you want to be successful, you need to do it with local leadership, with people who know the environment, who also have the political and society leadership. If you restore justice or if you rebuild justice early on, you will have better outcome for undp. There's three priorities in doing that type of work. First of all, a gender justice gap, as it is in many places, as unfortunately it has been for a long time in many places, it is not inevitable.

The reason that it is there is that there is a governance failure. Now, governance failures are things that can be fixed. I mean, these things are human made. And we have a flagship initiative which is called Economics, where basically we work with ministries of finance to make sure that the financing is adapted to it. If you want to have change, well, you need financial means to be allocated to it.

And we all know that the Justice Department is important. But if you don't have the Ministry of Finance behind it, there is not much what is happening. That is the first thing. Second thing is, even in very unstable environments, even in crisis settings, there are concrete solutions that you can bring in. Early on.

We have mobile court systems which we can work and we're really happy to work with UN women on what we call our gender justice platform. We have it today active in more than 40 countries, countries in all types of sometimes ad hoc, sometimes very flexible, early on justice systems that we try to implement. And then third element is on the priority. Let's move this up early on and not have it as the end, as it is too often the case, you know, to finalize. We will often say that we praise women's resilience in difficult circumstances and we do that for a good reason.

But praising resilience really is not enough. I mean, we have to do way more than that. What we have to do is to make sure that justice works and that justice works for everyone and especially for more than half of the population. Because we know that in general, if justice is not working for women, it's not working for no one. And that should be our main goal.

It needs to work for everyone, also for women, but the most important for everyone. Thank you,

Thank you so much, Administrator, for reminding us that we need to walk tete a tete with men, but also that we need to go beyond superficial symptoms and work on early on justice systems. And now it is my pleasure to invite His Excellency Peter Derek Hott, Ambassador for Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the Kingdom of Netherlands. The Ambassador Hott has worked across many fragile Conflict affected context and we all know that the Netherlands has a very strong commitment and is a strong partner advancing women's rights, rule of law, protection and access to justice. Over to you.

Good morning, Madam Executive Director, Mr. Administrator, Excellencies, guests. Let me first of all thank UNDP and UN women for their leadership on this important theme we're discussing today. Access to justice for women is a basic human right and it's a prerequisite for gender equality. So investing in access to justice is the right thing to do, but it's also the smart thing to do.

Because evidence shows that investing in justice for women yields high returns in human development and in economic growth, especially in fragile and crisis affected settings. So in those contexts, justice, including for women, is not only a value in itself, but also a powerful instrument for preventing violence and fostering stability. Especially at these times of increasing conflict in the world and growing pushback. This discussion could not be more urgent. So that begs the question, when we look beyond the laws, what are the high impact investments that translate into real access to justice for women?

For us in the Netherlands, access to justice has been a priority for a long time. We support many programs across many fragile contexts. And also, looking back at my own experience as Ambassador to Yemen, I saw that many years of conflict affected the country and largely destroyed the justice system that was already strained before the war. And that's why we started supporting UNDP's access to justice program. Because the strength of that program lies in a combination of various measures.

For instance, informal justice processes like community mediation committees to resolve non criminal disputes. Many women mediators were trained. It also included gender justice initiatives to empower women in the justice sector and create gender sensitive legal procedures. The third element was the provision of legal services to vulnerable groups. And the fourth, building trust between police and communities.

Now, looking broader at a lessons from this program and many other programs that we have supported, I would say that one high leverage investment is investing in frontline legal support that is trusted and accessible to women. So in several countries we have supported legal awareness campaigns and the training, for instance, of female paralegals who are on the ground in communities, so that survivors of Japanese gender based violence can get concrete advice and accompaniment close to where they live. For instance, in Somalia, we supported alternative dispute resolution centers with clear referral pathways for GBV survivors into the formal system. The second high leverage investment is in specialized justice mechanisms for gender based violence within the formal justice system. Accessing a formal legal system is one of the biggest challenges that GBV survivors face due to the limited presence of courts and the long distance.

So we supported, together with undp, the establishment of the first GBV court in South Sudan. Similarly, in Mali, we helped establish specialized GBV units within the criminal justice chain. So the common thread here is that these initiatives are not focused on legal changes, but at changing how institutions behaved. And they are designed based on the lived experiences of women and girls and not around institutional convenience.

Finally, allow me to briefly address the issue of reform approaches that should be prioritized, because from our experience, a key priority is to embed people centered approach approaches into justice reform and to apply a strong gender lens. Justice systems must deliver services that address women's needs and demands in a direct, tangible and visible way and do so in ways that are cost effective, scalable and sustainable, especially in fragile settings. So since 2021, we've worked through the Justice Action Coalition with many like minded countries partners to identify how justice systems can become more people centered and more responsive to women. And that is what we will continue to do. We will continue to support partners who put women's justice needs at the center of reform and who measure success not by the number of laws that are adopted, but by the number of women whose rights are actually realized.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your determination and thank you for showcasing here how powerful can be alliances and international meaningful partnerships. Thank you. It is my pleasure now to introduce you and invite Marcia Lopez, Minister of Women of Brazil, to deliver opening keynote remarks. I think we all recognize Brazil as a key leader on gender equality, as a global voice advancing women's rights through public policies. And we are very, very lucky to have you here.

Over to you.

Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone present here today. Mr. Alexandra Decruw, administrator of the UNDP, and Seema Sami Bahus, executive director of UN Women. Thank you for your leadership in building this such important dialogue here today. All of the people and panelists here today allow me to begin with a simple assertion that orients us in Brazilian politics.

As President Lula always says, there's no full rule of law when access to justice continues to be unequal for women. Today we know that billions of people in the world face barriers to access systems of justice. For women, these barriers are even deeper. High costs, fear of retaliation, lack of trust in institutions, social stigmas, and many times legal structures that still reproduce historic inequalities. In Brazil, we learned that access to justice is not just a judicial question.

It's a question of public policy, institutional infrastructure and social trust and commitment with ethics and public policy. This is why? Our approach that we know we still have a long way to go, but we've already seen concrete results. Brings together strengthening of institutions, integration of services and data intelligence. First, we invest in public infrastructure to support women.

Today, Brazil, among other services, has the House of the Brazilian Women, integrated centers that bring in a single space, access to public safety services, legal services, social assistance, psychosocial support and legal guidance in a single space, also for children of survivors. Between 2024 and 2025, these centers delivered more than 879,000 services, demonstrating that when the state organizes itself around the needs of women, the access to justice becomes real. Second, we strengthen pathways to make reporting and support more accessible. The National Hotline 180 supports women facing violence and already delivered more than 1 million services in 2025 and more than 16 million in the last 20 years, including with support and services in Brazilian sign language, which extends the access for women with disabilities and for those in greater isolation, also in Spanish and English. Third, we worked to bring closer together the legal institutions to the reality of women.

We created a permanent forum with this legal system for the implementation of the Maria da Pena Law, which is globally known. And today we have it here, available in English and Spanish.

This brings together regularly courts, public defenders, public prosecutors and civil society to improve the flows of protection and legal measures. Considering that Brazil has 27 federative units and 5,500 municipalities. On top of all that, we also launched the Brazilian Pact, a national pact to prevent foreign feminicide that brings together 11 ministries and 22 Brazilian states in coordinated action to prevent, protect and for accountability. Another crucial element is using data for governance. Brazil produces today one of the most complete monitoring systems to monitor inequalities on gender.

The annual report on the socioeconomic situation of the women brings together hundreds of indicators. And the Data Women platform allows us to follow the reality of women in each of the different territories of the country, with all of its diversity, ethnically, racially and territorial diversity. Without this data, public policy will not reach those who need it most. Allow me to conclude with three ideas that I consider to be central for rebuilding the trust of women injustice. First, justice needs to be accessible, physically and institutionally, close to the real life of these women.

Second, the legal systems need to be integrated, connected with public safety, social assistance and rights protection. And third, the justice needs to be built with women listening to survivors, feminist organizations and the communities, because when it comes down to it, legitimacy of the rule of law in Brazil, which is here outlined in our 1988 constitution that has oriented Governments to fulfill this constitution, this legitimacy of the state, state of rule of law relies on the trust of people. And there's not a single democracy that can prosper if women have no trust in justice. Thank you very much.

That's it. So we can close? No, it's a joke. Thank you so much, Minister, for reminding us that the rule of law is the pillar of democracies. Thank you for moving the conversation towards public policies trust, but also efficiency of public institutions, including local level.

And we move naturally towards the panel. Our panel brings together perspectives from the government of Ukraine, international institutions. We have here the World bank and civil society, women's international organizations. We have here the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to reflect on what it works, what we must change and how to ensure that definitely justice systems deliver for women. Let me start and give a very warm welcome to Katerina Levchenko, Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy in Ukraine.

We know Ukraine is working to sustain justice reform and accountability in very difficult times, wartime and under very, very pressing conditions, while also responding to these increased risks and urgent protection needs for women and girls. So the question is, how has the war reshaped the justice landscape in your country for women and girls? And why restoring justice and strengthening trust in justice institutions is a national priority for Ukraine. Over to you.

Thank you very much, Madam Moderator and good morning, dear colleagues, dear friends. It's a big pleasure and honor to take part in this important event. And really a 12 year war of Russian Federation against Ukraine reshaped the justice landscape for women and girls in my country in three fundamental way. First, it multiplied risks. Second, it exposed institutional gaps.

And third, it transformed justice from from a legal issue into a matter of national resilience and national security. The world generated new patterns of violence, including conflict related sexual violence, large scale displacement, captivity related abuse, economic and social vulnerabilities. Women and girls faced new barriers. Physical insecurity, displacement across regions and borders and weakened local survivors delivery system, especially in hostilities affected regions. At the same time, justice institutions were operating under extraordinary strain, overloaded caseloads, damaged infrastructure and the need to investigate complex international war crimes.

In this environment, justice could either fracture or reform. And as government and as society, we choose reform. The war exposed that traditional justice models were insufficient for conflict related crimes, particularly those affecting women and girls. And the next systematic challenges became clear. The scale and complexity of international crimes require alignment with international criminal law standards.

The heightening risk of retraumatizations in criminal proceedings and the reluctance to to testify, fragmentation between different institutions, police Prosecutors, security service, health providers and legal aid system. Trust was really fragile. And without trust, women and men do not report. Without report, accountability collapses. That is why restoring and strengthening trust between became a national priority.

Not only for the delivery of justice, but also for social cohesion and democratic legitimacy. And our response has been structurized and systematic. Ukraine ratified the Rome Statute and incorporated crimes against humanity into our national legislation in 2022. Already during the full scale Russian invasion, we ratified important European Convention Istanbul Convention Convention on combating and preventing violence against women and domestic violence. In May 2022, Ukrainian government signed very important document framework of cooperation between government of Ukraine and UN on preventing and responding to to conflict related sexual violence crimes.

And this framework is our base document in cooperation with whole UN system due to develop an implementation plan for its implementation which we presented here on Monday together with special representative of Secretary General on conflict related sexual violence Pramila Pat. We also change the procedures and protocol for working with survivors using survivor centered approach and strong cooperation with survivors led organizations, both female and male survivors is a cause and root of our successful transformation. They are members of Intelligence Working Group. We have separate consultative panel of survivors led organizations and because of increasing of amount of such crimes, we have more and more such organizations. When war started and the sexual violence and the tortures were used by Russians against Ukrainians, four organizations were created semi Ukraine 20 for the 9th of December and alumni this year we have already eight organizations and four of them organizations created by men survivors.

And two more organizations are in the process of registration. And as government commissioner I work very closely with all these organizations and just finally lessons learned. Strategic lessons is gender responsive justice cannot wait for post conflict recovery. It must be embedded during a war. Because institutions built under pressure, if designed correctly, emerge stronger and more legitimate and trust one strengthens through real procedural safeguards and accountability becomes a stabilizing force for society.

That is why we support advocacy campaign of Ukrainian survivors of torture and sexual violence to include Russian Federation and its armed forces in so called shame list according to UN Security Council Resolution 1960. And I call on to you to support this advocacy of Ukrainian survivors because. Because it is way too accountability. Thank you,

Thank you so much, Commissioner Katerina for describing so well the impact of war in society and injustice. But also for reminding us how relevant are multilateral agreed frameworks when the order is broken. So thank you so much for reminding us that finally multilateralism is incredibly useful to guide societies and the horizon and the future. And now we move towards the next speaker Thea Trumbick thank you so much for being with us. The Women Business and the Law Report Thea provides an important global picture of where laws stand, where implementation gaps persist, how discrimination continues to shape women's lives.

Experiences and evidences are very important. So the question for you is, drawing on the report that you recently launched, can you give us the state of the art on laws and access to justice for women in fragile and crisis affected context? What are your key findings? How do they reveal about discrimination in practice and how this can be used by all of us, by countries, by the different actors to strengthen the case for policies and institutions and justice reforms?

Thank you Raquel and thank you for inviting me.

Let me begin with a simple but powerful fact from our latest Women Business in the law 2026 report. No economy in the world has secured all the legal rights women need for full economic participation. Participation we measure 190 countries in our report. Not one has achieved this, so we can start with that. But before we turn to results, I wanted to briefly introduce the Women Business in the Law Report.

In case you're not familiar with it, we just launched the latest one two weeks ago. This report is a global data set and analytical program housed at the World bank that measures laws, policies and institutions that shape women's economic opportunities in 190 economies. It covers areas such as mobility, workplace protections, pay, marriage and family laws, entrepreneurship, asset ownership, inheritance, child care, violence against women, pensions, and issues that address access to justice. Over time, we have expanded from measuring just the laws and the books to also assessing the system that make those laws work, including institutions, policies and enforcement. The aim is simple to provide governments, researchers, civil society, private sector, and anyone who could use this as development partners with a clear picture of where legal barriers persist, where reforms are happening, and where investments can have the highest impact on women's lives.

Recent Yale and World bank research estimates that in many countries, removing barriers to women's economic participation could raise national output by 15 to 20%. If you think about the fact that most countries raise their tax revenues are about 20% of GDP. This is how much is left on the table by not enacting these policies and laws. So the message is clear of this report. Investing in women's economic opportunity is one of the highest return economic strategies to governments today.

Now turning to what the latest data show, our report finds that women enjoy less than two thirds of the legal rights available to men globally and only 4% of women live in economies approaching full equality when it comes to women's rights. But when we move beyond what is written in the law to examine whether systems actually function. The gap widens even where laws guaranteeing equal rights for women exist, Only about half of the policies needed to support the implementation of laws are in place, and experts report that enforcement remains partial everywhere. Women business in the law now measures three the laws. These supportive frameworks that include institutions and policies, and the extent of enforcement in practice.

Across all three economies affected by fragility, conflict, and violence consistently score well below global averages. In practical terms, it means that women in FCV contexts have fewer rights on paper, far fewer systems to support those rights, and limited ability to enforce them when those rights are violated. On average, the FCV economy score 49 out of 100 on legal frameworks but only 27 on institutions and 37 on enforcement. This means that while parts of the law may exist, the court services and enforcement mechanisms women rely on are lacking. And nowhere is this more visible than in the area of women's safety.

In FCV settings, the average score for laws protecting women from violence is just 22 out of 100, compared to a global average of 37, which is already too low. And experts report that even where strong laws exist, enforcement is ineffective in roughly 90% of cases. A woman may have the legal right to report violence, but no safe or trusted place to turn. A law may guarantee her protection, but courts may lack capacity or access. A policy may exist on paper, but the institution responsible for delivering it may be unfunded or non functional.

Courts, legal aid, and judicial capacity are among the first casualties of conflict. Domestic violence, inheritance and contract claims go unheard, often permanently. However, conflict settings not make it impossible to enact and enforce strong laws, as we heard from the commissioner from Ukraine. Ukraine is the highest scoring FCV economy in our data set. Women there benefit from stronger legal frameworks and comparatively higher levels of institutional support and enforcement.

This demonstrates that when institutions remain functional, legal protections can hold even under extreme crisis pressure. In contrast, Afghanistan and Yemen show near total exclusion across all three pillars, minimal legal rights, almost no supporting institutions, and extremely weak enforcement. This contrast underscores that institutions and enforcement determine whether women's rights survive crisis. Even in the most fragile settings, we see positive reform momentum. One of the top performers in this year's report is Somalia, which enacted its first major labor reform since 1970, lifting restrictions on women's work in mining, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, water, and transportation.

It also introduced paid paternity leave for the first time, expanding access to higher paying sectors and aligning national labor standards with international norms. Other FCV Economies like Chad, Iraq, Mali and Mozambique also reformed over the last two years. They've introduced legislation addressing sexual harassment, parental leave benefits and workplace safeguards. These reforms show that progress is possible even in the most constrained environments. This evidence provides not only a diagnosis, but also a roadmap.

The Women Business and the Law Report identifies where gaps are greatest, where reforms are feasible and where investments will have the highest impact. The conclusion is clear. Laws matter, but systems matter even more. To ensure women's rights hold hold under pressure, we must invest not only in legal reform, but in institutions, enforcement and access to justice. Thank you,

Thank you so much Tutea, and to the World bank for showing with evidences that it's possible really to sustain justice even in the worst scenarios. And we will take these numbers and we will use them to make the case stronger anytime. And now I'm very, very happy to open the floor to our next ex speaker.

This CSW is for women's organizations. They are the ones running for feminist organizations. They are the ones moving the agenda. So the question for Awanes is Speaker Amrita is in many crisis settings, women led organizations are the ones holding the agenda, but are also the ones at the forefront of the response and at the core of the human rights defenders, not just advocating for justice. So they are also making justice and pathways possible.

So do you want to share with us from a feminist perspective in terms of peace building, what concrete protection measures actually work for survivors? Witness for women's rights defenders during truth commissions, during trials, at community processes, including digital security. Over to you.

Thank you so much, Raquel. Thank you Excellencies, colleagues and friends, and thank you also to undp, UN women, Brazil, the Kingdom of Netherlands and Ukraine.

I will be answering that question, but I will take a step back to look at the broader context. I think firstly I want to start by acknowledging at this moment when we're looking at access to justice for women and girls, that there are many women and girls who are not in the room with us because precisely of the intersecting structural barriers that prevent them from being here. And in addition to that, the compounding violence that we see in the world that has prevented further hundreds of women and girls from participating due to the violence in their region. And I want to just take a moment here because I think this speaks to exactly what we're talking about, which is how do we link what we're discussing in terms of justice? And I think we've got concrete measures that work with the broader objective of inclusive and sustainable pay piece, which is the precondition for effective justice.

So I think firstly I would acknowledge that all of the speeches so far have really identified what we have achieved in really concrete and significant ways. And at the same time that there are remaining challenges that not only are significant, I would argue that in this moment it feels that they are actually gathering momentum. So firstly, let me continue contextualize where we are today. In fact, we are in a more violent world than ever since World War II. Global conflict is at its highest level with 59 active state based conflicts and over 240 deaths and counting.

That's a quarter of a million lives in a year, 2024 to 2025 and one in seven people exposed to to violence. And not just interstate armed violence, but also intrastate armed violence. This cost is of course enormous. It's 19.97 trillion in 2024, 11.6 of global GDP. And I thought it was very interesting to hear the remark that the cost of violence against women and girls is 1.3 trillion.

So in fact what we see is this real redirection of resources into military spending that is making our world less and less safe. And what that means is that justice itself also needs to be recontextualised in these contexts. So we know what works within the justice systems. And we've heard just previously how indeed the evidence is showing us where the gains are, whether it's access to legal support, comprehensive multifaceted faceted support to GBV survivors. And so this evidence is there.

I would argue that we also know what are the preconditions for addressing violence in context to allow these justice processes to work. And indeed the opening remarks already made this link by talking about reconstruction and how justice needs to come in earlier. So we see a link already between I would say the WP agenda in conflict affected contexts and justice. And here I would say we're also seeing a link obviously between protection to your question and what does this mean in concrete terms, not just now, but for the future. Because I think we are seeing today the consequence of looking at protection or participation or relief and recovery and reconstruction without looking at how these link to prevention, because without making this an accountable link to prevention for inclusive and sustainable peace, all we're doing is managing, becoming better at managing the consequences of violence and conflict.

So in this case, unless we actually look at what are the integrating systems that create the violence, violence in the first place, the root causes, and address these structural inequalities, we can't begin to achieve the type of justice that we're looking for, particularly in Conflict and fragile, conflict affected and fragile contexts. So here I would say is that justice in fragile contexts must intentionally seek to be transformative and must specifically look at prevention. And because otherwise, it's not justice, it's a mitigation of the previous structural causes of injustice only. And so what this means is that feminist peace building makes clear that we need to address these integrated and connected systems for 111 years. So Wilf is the world's oldest women's and peace feminist organization in the world.

WILF has been arguing that we need to look at these structural barriers of patriarchy, of nationalism, of militarism, of colonialism to be able to start to build meaningful, inclusive, and sustainable peace, which is the precondition for justice. And here I would say that when we look around the world today, we cannot understand conflict and injustice without looking at these intersecting systems. It's more visible, more salient than ever. And this is what's required, is to confront these structural systems that enable violence, enable retaliation, make women and girls unsafe in the first place. So this is the exact intersecting sort of systems and influences that create conditions in which survivors, witnesses, women human rights defenders, face grave risks for speaking out, for trying to access justice.

And so here that we need the systematic and resource participation of women and feminist civil society in the design, in the governance, and the oversight of these justice mechanisms. And so here, protection involves looking at collective protection strategies, consulting the women to allow them to identify and assess the relative risks to their own security and what is required to address those for their meaningful participation in justice systems. But we also need sustained support for feminist movements, because without this, what we see in crisis and fragile contexts is that, in fact, this is the space that contracts. As you mentioned, Raquel, women are at the front line. And this is precisely where the transformative particular potential is most urgent.

And yet it is where there is the least support. So here I would conclude by saying we know what works. We have the promising evidence within justice systems in concrete ways to allow survivors to have experiences of justice that actually deliver an experience of justice in their lived reality. But we actually need to go further than that, because just justice is not within the justice system. And what we've heard today is how we have to look at integrated systems.

And until we start to, as a community, specifically identify what is required to dismantle those structural reasons for inequality, I think the challenge is that we are still expecting a justice system that is not transformative, to deliver transformative results, results. And so the call, and I know that we have a Chance to make recommendations. So I'll leave my recommendations for the second part. But I would just leave with this one final thought, which is to say that this, the justice is tested in conflict affected and fragile contexts. But that is just a reflection of the most extreme version of what we see around the world.

And I think that people piece is worth considering in all of the country contexts around. How do we actually look at these integrated systems to be able to see what is necessary to dismantle the injustice that the current systems perpetuate. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Really. I cannot even start with. With all the diamonds that you have been bringing here and all the panelists. I take particularly the prevention and going before to the roots of inequalities in the systems.

Right. Working in the ecosystem approach. And thank you. We move now to our last round with the three panelists and I'm going to ask the same question to the three of them and we go for a shorter answer, but straight so we can take some action actions with us, so we don't stop just in the talk. We go with also the more pragmatic what can we do beyond the analysis.

So in the next six to 12 months, what are the two or three more important actions can be policy change, investment, partnership that can be measurable, that may improve women's access to justice in crisis settings. So over to you. It's not an easy question because it's a very broad frame, but you can move, be concrete or go more for the global community, regional or concrete cases. Over to you. And I'm going to start by the Commissioner from Ukraine.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. I will give only one example which is very concrete and important for survivors of war crimes in Ukraine. For the next 612 months, our common task. Common task, it means task for government, for international partners, for civil society organizations to ensure that full and effective implementation of law, which we call Bardina Law according to the name of member of Ukrainian Parliament Marina Bardina, who was the principal author of this legal act which was adopted by Parliament last year and signed by President. This is law on Argentine reparations and establishing status of survivors of war crime, especially status of survivors of conflict related sexual violence.

We have already finished the pilot project together with Global Survival Fund and identify more than 1,000 survivors, both men and women, who received compensations and rehabilitation program under this pilot project and developed the mobile model which should be implemented in sustainable government policy due to developing by law act. And we really, as a country which is still in war, we need support from international community from UN Agency, from international human rights and legal organizations for developing strong and sustainable military mechanism for reparation of survivors of war crime in Ukraine. Thank you. This was very sharp. Thank you so much.

We move now to TIA

justice in crisis setting. In the next six to 12 months, I would suggest three priority actions. 1. Pass the laws that matter most. And here I would especially focus on those that protect women from violence.

Our latest report shows that despite global progress, many countries still lack the basic legal protections that women need to be safe and to participate fully. This is particularly true in FCV contexts where domestic violence legislation may be incomplete. Sexual harassment laws often exist only in narrow or partial forms, and laws prohibiting child marriage and addressing femicide are largely missing. Strengthening this legal framework is only the first step. Without clear laws, women have no formal protection, no recourse to seek help, and no basis for institutions to act.

In the near term, countries can take targeted, achievable actions, adopt comprehensive domestic violence laws, ensure protection orders are available and enforceable, expand sexual harassment laws to cover workplaces, school public spaces and digital environments and align national legislation with international standards. But laws alone do not solve the problems, but they define the rights and obligations that make every other reform possible. So my second action item would be to invest in institutions and close the enforcement gap. The latest report reveals the biggest gap of all is in enforcement. Even when strong laws exist, they often do not function in practice because supporting institutions are missing under resourced or overstretched.

This is especially true in fragile and conflict settings where police have health systems, courts and social services may be weakened or disrupted. Practical short term actions could include clarifying mandates, establishing simple procedures for responding to violence and sexual harassment cases, identifying focal points with inside key institutions, and streamlining referral pathways across police, health providers and social services. Countries can also leverage what they already have, using health posts, humanitarian service points or community centers as entry points for information and referral, training existing frontline workers during routine meetings, engaging community paralegals or civil society groups that already serve survivors, and introducing basic case tracking to identify where implementation breaks down. Where resources are limited, enforcement can be targeted to high risk sectors informal markets, agriculture, domestic work, transport hubs using existing inspectorates or local authorities. These measures strengthen implementation without requiring new legislation or large budgets.

And finally, the third action would be to build partnerships that embed justice across crisis response and recovery. Women's access to justice does not only depend on justice institutions, but on the links between justice, health, labor, education, social protection, community systems and the private sector. In fragile contexts where the no single Institution can meet the need alone. Partnerships are essential. Integrating legal information and referral into humanitarian programs, social protection platforms and livelihood support can expand access quickly.

Civil society organizations, often the first responders in crisis, can be formally integrated into national referral systems, task forces or case management structures. The private sector can support implementation by adopting anti harassment planning policies, establishing reporting channels and linking with national complaint mechanisms. Using data like the one provided by women, business and the law can help ensure partnerships are directed. Where the gaps are largest, policymakers can use these indicators to prioritize legal reforms. Development partners can focus investments.

Where implementation is weakest, employers can assess compliance needs and civil society can monitor progress, hold institutions accountable and identify barriers women face in practice. These three actions, passing the laws that protect women, strengthening institutions and enforcement, and building the partnerships that make justice systems function are the most urgent and effective steps countries can take today. Women, Business and the Law 2026 makes it clear that without safety and access to justice, women cannot benefit from economic opportunities or exercise their rights. But where laws are in place. But when laws are in place, institutions are functional and partnerships align, women gain protection even in crisis.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Also very clear and straight. And we move now to. Amrita, over to you.

Thank you. To three levels in terms of recommendations. The first one is broad at the international level and it's again going to the context. Context. This is a moment that requires bravery.

I want to just mention, I think, just Spain's example in recent weeks to really say, well, this is where we draw the line and how do we work strategically as an international community to start to draw those lines so that we are recognizing where conflict and violence is impeding and absolutely preventing any progress towards justice. This means looking at strategic relationships to build critical mass that makes it harder to say no, but also looking at how to support at the international level, gender responsive justice when it's not available at the national level. The second example I'll mention here is the mechanism, the independent and investigative mechanism for Afghanistan recently established by the Human Rights Council. Even in this context, and ensuring, for example, that there is gender competence and expertise embedded in the leadership of that mechanism, because we know that in a system characterised by gender apartheid and systematic exclusion of women and girls, without that expertise, you cannot hope to have a fully effective approach to understand the justice needs of women and girls in Afghanistan. Second level is at the.

At the state level, which is. And also I would say at the multilateral level as well, is just to recognize that in this moment, where we are seeing the conscious and deliberate Redirection of resources away from gender equality, social services, justice, all of the preconditions to peaceful societies, inter military spending, that this is something which is costing us not just now, but for generations to come. And we know even UN Women's Report last year was talking specifically about women's rights organisations in crisis affected and fragile contexts just disappearing. And that's been the case. This is the front line of where those who are most able to identify and build the systems for justice and peace are the ones who are most under resourced, also most at risk and also without protection.

So I would say here one of the most immediate barriers is the lack of sufficient support to these feminist organizations. We see that when they are supported they are able to achieve transformative results not just in the justice system formally, but also more broadly. And we've heard examples about that today. And then thirdly, I would just mention the protection to these actors, specifically looking at concrete measures like emergency relocation, legal assistance, digital security, training. In practical terms, governments and donors can and should expand rapid response protection funds and support to these grassroots organisations so that they have agency to be able to respond more agilely to the pressing needs, not just in terms of access to justice systems, but the precondition of protection to be able to do so.

I think finally I would say that feminist peace building teaches us that justice is most effective when it is rooted in in the leadership, safety, knowledge and wisdom of the diverse women and communities most affected by violence. And this is the community of voices that needs to be guiding our steps in designing, rebuilding and reshaping justice, including in conflict and fragile contexts.

Thank you so much. We have like two minutes for one intervention, one question and I wanted to say we need to be short. Don't take it like I'm rude if I cut someone because we wanted to also do a closing. So over to you.

Good morning, your excellency, Woman change maker in the room. My name is Blanca Mujica, I'm from Iquitos, Peru. I am a lawyer too. I will take an advance of that interpretation to shake a little comment in Spanish in my mother language en el

Peru uno de los mayores. In Peru, one of the most significant challenges that women face is inequality. Given their low economic resources. Many women are in particular, particular in rural areas and in the Amazon region, lack follow up and support from the system to help them to deal with institutions. They have a lack of legal aid and also fear and distrust when it comes to complaining about the violence they face on a daily basis in civil society and in Organisations like the one that I work for, we see, we hear these voices and we also hear about how these women are left by the wayside in government.

And this is one of the first spaces that should receive more significant reports. Another thing that I think is very important in this discussion, in this debate is what Alexandre decroux mentioned. His Excellency. If the justice system doesn't work for everyone, then it doesn't work for anyone. So having said that, I wanted to launch an appeal to UN women and all UN agencies and organizations to work closely with civil society and to support the women who deserve to be listened to the world over.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for bringing the Ecuador and the indigenous you Peru and indigenous reality and women's reality. So thank you. We love to open for everyone, but we have. There is one more is quickly. Thank you.

Yes, it's quickly.

But following that reference of sexual violence that needs to be accessible, adapted that how to find reparations that is accessible and adapted to the condition of fear, trauma of fear of stigma that victims have. Because we can leave that segment of women alone. We can work on transformation of the whole process if we we leave those who suffer the most alone.

So basically, how can we walk and chew at the same time? How can we look at the long term process of transformation while also doing something concrete? And we are working now in Syria, for example, and we're facing that reconstruction process too that requires to have reparation for victims of sexual violence, where you can even talk about it with a process of reconstruction. So how do you complement both processes? Please.

Thank you. Thank you and thank you for bringing also the today. What can we do today? Thank you. Now we move to the closing and really all the panelists have designed such a roadmap and such a richness and I cannot even describe.

And now we have also I'm very pleased to invite Michelle Moonshed. She is the Assistant Secretary General of undp, the Regional Director of Latin America and the Caribbean is going to share with us her final reflections. And I wanted to say that she is also an incredible gender champion for our organization and even before because she had also a life before undp. But Michelle, over to you and thank you for accompanying us. Gracias.

Thank you. Dear me, after this amazing discussion and the final questions and comments that we received from the ground. Good morning to all and let me start by reiterating the gratitude from UNDP towards the government of Netherlands, Ukraine, Brazil and UN women, of course, for organizing these fascinating, important and urgent discussion. And regarding today's discussion. I think it's also important to thank our panelists for the insights, the evidence based approach and the solutions oriented remarks that you exchanged with us today.

And I would say perhaps in names of everyone here, that your firm commitment and passion and courage on these topics topic from government, from multilateral system, from civil society organizations is already a source of hope for everyone in the world. Today's message I think it's very clear the gender justice gap is a systemic crisis that is affecting women in a disproportionate manner, but it is affecting the whole world and the whole population, as UNDP administrator mentioned, with great, great human, social and economic consequences as he also mentioned and was very clear, backed by the data shared by the World bank today. It's important also from the interventions you share with us that justice is not an isolated concept. Justice is a pillar of development, of democracy, of peace. As the speaker you all have in your seats, without justice there is no development at all.

Justice and the discussion is not just about how do we find justice, but how do we advance that political commitment. In your comments you refer to the importance of sustained financing, data driven accountability and deep institutional reforms to ensure that we keep an eye not only on prevention, protection, reparation and not repeating. If we connect with the last question that was asked, I think it's important also to highlight that transformation is already happening. Your last remarks in the last round was very clear. So we need to pay a special attention, a special focus on scaling what's working already and especially considering the conflict affected zones, regions and countries.

Second, to ensure that we place people at the center of all these reforms. And when we put people at the center, this also implies having a gender responsive lenses in the way we advance that to ensure that we cover that half of the population that is part of the obligations that our institutions have has and third, very, very clear to support women's leadership. Because the conversation today is not only about women's and girls access to justice, but how the participation of women in public life can be transformative itself. And I think this is a time to make a very brief pause to pay tribute to the courage of all women serving already in the justice system as judges, as prosecutors, as defenders, police officers that are committed to more credible, effective and survivor centered institutions and that has the courage to do that in particularly uncertain and polarized times, as you mentioned, Amrita, referring to the courage that requires to lead today and advance these transformations, especially in the times we are living, dear friends, gender and equality are at the center of UNDP's mandate of advancing sustainable human development and democratic governance. And this is very clear, reinforced by the member states as a mandate, with the approval of our latest strategic plan and all the regional programs that were approved by our executive board six months ago, that includes gender equality, not just as an objective itself, but as a clear accelerator of all development dimensions.

And I think this is not minor and it's going to be reflected on the gender strategy that Raquel is leading within the organization. So rest assured that we are here to leverage our universal presence, to connect policy advice with implementation and long term support, and to continue building, enhancing and deepening partnerships such as the ones we have with UN women and the gender justice platform that several of you referred before. And that is advanced thanks to the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in more than 40 fragile contexts right now. So to close, dear panelists, and to all participants, I would like to highlight the. The irreparable role that multilateralism plays in advancing gender equality.

We cannot take anything for granted these days and multilateralism is also facing a lot of pressure and it's the only way. All the important gains are not minors that we have achieved in the past years since this conference was created were thanks in great part to multilateralism. The importance of placing justice as a global public good as a central topic of this csw. It's brave, it's clear, it's concrete and it's impactful and just to reaffirm our readiness to work with you, to translate the commitments of this conference into measurable durable gains under the terms clearly stated by Ambassador Hoff. It's not just number of laws, number of projects or, or initiatives, but the lives that we impact, empower and protect.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Michel. Thank you to our partners, to UN women, to the government of Brazil, Kingdom of Netherlands, to Ukraine, and to all the participants. I am convinced nobody in this room is a passive listener. I'm convinced that all of you are committed to what we have discussed today. And at least as undp, we expect that this dialogue is bringing you more fuel, motivation, and is incentivizing all of you and all of us to continue this work.

And you have us UNDP here for whatever you need. Thank you so much for joining.