Women’s access to justice
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 25 June 2026 (26th sitting) (see Doc. 16446, report of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Ms Aysu Bankoğlu. Text adopted
by the Assembly on 25 June 2026 (26th sitting).
1. Access to justice is a human right
and an integral element of the rule of law. It is also an enabling
right, allowing those who consider that their rights have been violated
to enforce them and seek redress. Access to justice is a fundamental
requirement of democratic societies.
2. Access to justice is a cornerstone on the path towards full
and effective equality between women and men, and a fundamental
element of the international human rights system. The availability
and accessibility of effective remedies, adequate reparation and/or
compensation are part of ensuring genuine access to justice for
all women and girls, in all their diversity, which must be guaranteed
without discrimination on any ground.
3. Yet formal equality in legislation does not automatically
translate into substantive equality in practice. Persistent power
imbalances in society and a failure to take into account gender-related
issues and bias mean that women and girls are still often denied
access to remedies and redress.
4. The barriers facing women in their access to justice are multiple.
Economic and social inequalities, gender bias and gender stereotypes
in the justice system lead to structural imbalances, resulting in
a playing field that is far from level. Legal, institutional and
sociocultural barriers generate women’s lack of trust in the justice
system, leading to high levels of under-reporting and attrition.
5. The difficulties and barriers that prevent women from enjoying
effective access to justice affect them differently, as some groups
of women are exposed to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including
lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LBTI) women; migrant,
refugee and asylum-seeking women; Roma and Traveller women; women
belonging to national, ethnic or religious minorities; women with disabilities;
older women; undocumented women; and women human rights defenders.
6. In its
Resolution 2054
(2015) “Equality and non-discrimination in the access
to justice”, the Parliamentary Assembly called on member States
to step up efforts to remove legal, social, economic and cultural
barriers to women’s access to justice. The Assembly regrets that,
eleven years later, much remains to be done.
7. All Council of Europe strategies on gender equality have included
the objective of “ensuring equal access to justice for women and
girls”. Thematic guidance and tools on this issue have been published
over the years. The Gender Equality Strategy 2024-2029 aims to increase
the capacity of member States to remove barriers and obstacles to
women’s and girls’ access to justice.
8. Swift and reliable access to justice is particularly critical
for women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence. According
to the survey on gender-based violence in the European Union, published
by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in March
2026, while one in three women has experienced violence, only one
in eight has reported it to the police. The high prevalence of online
and offline violence against women requires giving priority to improving
their access to justice.
9. Many women and girls who are victims of violence experience
long delays in court proceedings and procedures that make them relive
the trauma they have been through, while they face complex judicial procedures.
Legal assistance and free legal aid are essential for victims of
violence to secure their rights to justice, protection, compensation
and redress.
10. The Assembly expresses its concern at the high prevalence
of violence against women and the high level of impunity for perpetrators,
demonstrated in very low conviction rates. In its
Resolution 2649 (2026) “Promoting
the Istanbul Convention and improving its implementation: building
on lessons learnt”, the Assembly noted the lack of awareness among
women victims of violence about their rights, as well as a lack of
trust in the justice system.
11. Women who seek justice for gender-based violence are often
confronted with the stereotype of the “ideal victim”, facing disbelief,
blame or diminished protection if they do not conform to it. Judicial
reasoning that relies on gender stereotypes, myths about sexual
violence or assumptions about women’s credibility create structural barriers
to justice and perpetuate a discriminatory approach in the institutions
that should protect women’s rights.
12. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”)
also illustrates this reality, as the Court has underlined that
discriminatory judicial passivity creates a climate conducive to
domestic violence, which amounts to a violation of Article 14 of
the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5). The Court has
also noted that the discriminatory passivity of law-enforcement
authorities can be considered as a “systemic failure”.
13. The Assembly stresses that it is of the utmost importance
that women and girls who are victims of violence can count on specialised
and well-trained law-enforcement officers, legal and judicial professionals.
It welcomes the Council of Europe Network of specialised lawyers
and non-governmental organisations assisting women victims of violence,
created to facilitate exchanges among lawyers and to serve as a
knowledge-sharing platform for strategic litigation on violence
against women.
14. The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) is witnessing an increasing number
of cases where women who report being victims of violence are faced
with retaliatory legal proceedings by the perpetrator. The Assembly
shares the concern of the growing misuse of legal systems as instruments
to silence, intimidate or punish women who challenge discrimination,
violence or unequal laws.
15. The Assembly calls for the effective implementation of General
Recommendation No. 33 on women’s access to justice, adopted by the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) in 2015.
16. The Assembly also calls for the legal recognition of gender
apartheid in order to combat this scourge that persists in many
countries around the world.
17. The Assembly refers to the agreed conclusions adopted in March
2026 by the 70th annual Commission on the Status of Women, which
underline that justice systems should respond to the needs and rights
of all women and girls.
18. The Assembly underlines the need to meet relevant targets
under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
including targets 5.1, 5.2 and 16.3: to end all forms of discrimination
and violence against all women and girls, and to ensure equal access
to justice for all.
19. The Assembly stresses the urgency of redoubling efforts to
combat the growing backlash against women’s rights, which is further
hindering their access to justice.
20. Recognising the urgent need to tackle the persistent barriers
to women’s access to justice, as a key building block to achieving
real gender equality in practice, the Assembly calls on Council
of Europe member States, and States whose parliament enjoys observer
or partner for democracy status with the Assembly:
20.1 with regard to ensuring gender-sensitive
and gender-responsive justice systems, to:
20.1.1 ensure
that legal and justice professionals are fully trained on the barriers
faced by women in accessing justice and on how to tackle such barriers,
including the use of the online course of the Council of Europe
Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP)
on women’s access to justice;
20.1.2 promote the use of two Council of Europe guides for legal
professionals: “Women’s access to justice” and the “Guide for developing
a mentoring programme on women’s access to justice”;
20.1.3 ensure adequate and sustainable funding for justice facilities
and online and offline services that respond to the needs of women
and girls seeking redress;
20.1.4 ensure that evidentiary rules, investigations and other
legal procedures are impartial and free from gender stereotypes
or bias;
20.1.5 identify and address inadequate or discriminatory legal
frameworks or de facto practices that
discriminate against women in the workforce and in the workplace;
20.1.6 strengthen institutional co-ordination between law enforcement,
courts, prosecution services, legal aid, child protection and social
services to ensure timely and effective responses to the needs of
women and girls in accessing justice;
20.1.7 support and facilitate the work of civil society organisations
that assist women to access justice and redress;
20.1.8 ensure full access by women and girls to justice and reparation
in conflict and post-conflict settings, including investigation
and prosecution of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of conflict;
20.1.9 carry out data collection in the justice sector – disaggregated
by gender, age, marital status, migration status, disability – taking
into account the Council of Europe Guidelines on data collection
practices relevant for women’s access to justice, to monitor progress
on achieving justice for all women and girls;
20.1.10 conduct research and gender analyses of justice systems
to identify practices, procedures and jurisprudence that either
facilitate or limit women’s access to justice, and use them for
evidence-based policy formulation;
20.2 with regard to improving access to justice for women victims
of gender-based violence and domestic violence, to:
20.2.1 ratify,
if they have not yet done so, and put into practice the Council
of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against
Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210);
20.2.2 provide accessible information to women victims of violence
about their rights and how to access justice;
20.2.3 ensure effective access to legal aid for women victims
of violence;
20.2.4 provide compulsory initial and in-service training for
judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law-enforcement officers, following
a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach to prevent secondary
victimisation, covering the additional barriers faced by women with
disabilities, migrant women, women in prostitution, women with addictions,
women in rural areas, older women and LBTI women;
20.2.5 use the online courses of the HELP programme on combating
violence against women and domestic violence, including the course
addressed to law-enforcement officials and the new short course
on technology-facilitated violence against women and girls;
20.2.6 take measures to address judicial bias and eliminate gender
stereotyping in courtrooms, ensure accurate legal qualification
of gender-based violence, impose sanctions that reflect the seriousness
of such offences and guarantee victim-centred procedures that prevent
secondary victimisation;
20.2.7 provide the necessary resources for law enforcement to
investigate and prosecute the growing number of cases of gender-based
violence against women, including technology-facilitated violence
such as online stalking, the non-consensual sharing of intimate
images, privacy violations, misogynistic hate speech campaigns and
image manipulation;
20.2.8 collect comparable administrative and judicial data, disaggregated
by sex, age, type of violence and the relationship between the victim
and perpetrator, covering all forms of violence against women;
20.2.9 ensure co-operation and information sharing between criminal
courts and family courts in cases of violence against women, including
training on the dynamics of violence for judges and court-appointed
experts in cases of separation, child custody and visitation rights;
20.2.10 address the minimisation of domestic violence claims in
parental separation and child custody cases, based on ill-founded
concepts such as “parental alienation”, which have no scientific
basis;
20.2.11 ensure that mandatory alternative dispute resolution processes
are strictly prohibited in all cases of violence against women;
20.2.12 improve legislation, protocols and practices on conducting
risk assessments and on the implementation of emergency barring
orders and protection orders, and pay increased attention during
investigations to any history of gender-based violence;
20.2.13 analyse and address the reasons for the low rates of prosecution
and conviction in cases of violence against women, in online and
offline environments, including the reasons and obstacles behind
the low reporting rates.
