The impact of the united nations on women's access to justice in post-conflict societies
| Autor | Noemi Perez-Vasquez |
| Páginas | 353-380 |
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THE IMPACT OF THE UNITED NATIONS
ON WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE
IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES
Noemi Perez-Vasquez1
Abstract: is article analyses the impact of the transitional justice
policy approach implemented by the United Nations in post-
conict societies. Based on the cases of Timor-Leste and Kosovo,
I ask whether the proactive participation of international actors
has contributed to ensuring women’s rights protection in post-
conict societies. It argues that the diversity of power structures
that come into play within the scope of the justice system can create
discrimination, including inadequate law and lack of protective
measures, limiting therefore the access to justice of those in a
situation of major vulnerability, such as women.
Keywords: transitional justice, international laws and policies,
women’s rights, access to justice, United Nations, Timor-Leste.
1. Noemi Perez-Vasquez is a human rights consultant and a PhD Candidate in Politics
and International Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
University of London. Her research interests are transitional justice, women’s rights and
impact of international policies and norms. She is also currently a Visiting Researcher
at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e, in Dili, Timor-Leste, where she has been
carrying out eldwork since August 2016. She holds a LL.M. in Public International
Law from the University of Oslo and a MSc in Comparative Politics from e London
School of Economics and Political Science.
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Justiça de transição em perspectiva transnacional
e literature on evaluating the eectiveness of transitional justice
is expanding. Although there is little agreement on what constitutes
‘success’ and how it should be measured and judged, factors that
are commonly referred to in demonstrating that transitional justice
mechanisms have been successful include ‘outcomes; mandates
of institutions; processes of establishment and of functioning;
involvement of, and reaction from, victims and aected populations;
adherence to universal normative standards; and cost-eectiveness’
(Ainley, 2015: 241-242). While this list of elements may be vast,
when it comes to the actors in charge of the execution of transitional
justice policies, the general presumption is that, regardless of the
results, the United Nations has a leading role in the design and
provision of advice to governments regarding transitional justice
mechanisms. However, since an organisation like the UN should
be judged by what it has promised and accomplished (Barnett and
Finnemore, 2004: 168), I raise questions regarding accountability
and the eectiveness of their norms and policies on other common
areas on which transitional justice programmes are expected to have
an impact, such as an increased respect for human rights (Skaar and
Gianella Malca, 2015: 20) and the facilitation of the formation of
new identities (Duggan, 2010: 320).
If this is the case, it becomes thus compelling to think about
women. During a conict women face additional issues that men
do not such as pervasive sexual violence, reproductive violence,
sexually transmitted diseases and forced abortion (Aoláin, Haynes
and Cahn, 2011: 5). Moreover, women have been considered to
be greatly aected by internal displacement and during violence
the negative eects of traditional gender-based hierarchies may
be exacerbated (Aoláin, Haynes and Cahn, 2011: 5). If elements
of human rights and formation of new identities of transitional
justice are thus considered from a gender perspective, the impact of
transitional justice mechanisms may be better assessed by looking
at the contributions they make to the access to justice of women
and to the transformation of existing hierarchies of subordination
(ICTJ, 2016). By raising women’s experiences in dealing with the
law, policies and institutions during a post-conict situation, this
paper revises presumptions on whether the proactive participation
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