Women's Access to Justice in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region

Abstract

Access to justice scholars have moved from a uni-dimensional focus on the procedural and cost barriers that prevent individuals from bringing their claims to court, to a more holistic assessment of all aspects of the legal system. Focus has widened from simply an emphasis on "access" to an examination of "justice" as well. The trend is towards thinking of access to justice as three distinct yet interdependent components: substantive justice which concerns itself with an assessment of the rights claims that are available to those who seek a remedy; procedural aspects which focus on the opportunities and barriers to getting one’s claim into court (or other dispute resolution forum); and, the symbolic component of access to justice which steps outside of doctrinal law and asks to what extent a particular legal regime promotes citizens’ belonging and empowerment.

This paper focuses on women’s access to justice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It offers a typology of access to justice in the hopes of developing a common framework for discussion and a basis for comparing results, strategies and experiences across the MENA region. A common framework can help identify the reasons for the gaps between formal equality rights and women’s lived realities across MENA notwithstanding the differences in the legal cultures. A common framework can also promote strategic sharing across national contexts and can facilitate a periodic stock-taking and (re-)evaluation of methods that have proven (in)effective over time.

Keywords: women's rights, access to justice, middle east, north africa, law and development