The regional project will contribute to and eliminate the systemic barriers women encounter when accessing justice, both the legal and institutional challenges as well as the socio-cultural barriers that materialises as gender bias in the justice systems of the Eastern Partnership countries.
This project is implemented within the third Phase of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Partnership for Good Governance.” It builds on the results of the previous phases of the Partnership for Good Governance in the field of advancing women’s access to justice and combating violence against women (Phase I 2015-2018 and Phase II 2019-2023).

To strengthen access to justice for women, especially women victims of violence in line with the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).

1. Improve the gender-responsiveness of the justice systems in the Eastern Partnership countries and strengthen the access to justice for victims of violence against women, in particular through capacity building of legal professionals to implement gender-sensitive measures, and
2. Increase awareness on and support the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).

The project is expected to achieve the following results:

1. Legal professionals from across the Eastern Partnership will be equipped with knowledge on removing barriers to women’s access to justice, thus making the justice chain more gender-responsive.
2. Measures will be introduced with law schools to ensure a gender-responsive justice chain, in cooperation with civil society organisations.
3. Regional network of judicial training institutions will be developed, to dismantle and eliminate institutional barriers to equal access to justice.
4. Multi-stakeholder dialogue and awareness raising will be done to inform and propose indicators to be applied to assess the degree of accessibility to justice for all.