Policy Brief: Designing women-led community justice services

The formal justice system and informal justice system are either inaccessible, unaffordable or discriminatory towards women. As calls for women empowerment continue to grow, women-led community justice services emerge as a promising alternative. Drawing from the experience of improving men-led community justice services, we recommend key parameters for the service delivery model of a women-led community justice service and identify how they can be operationalised.

Of foremost importance for policymakers, donors, and dispute resolution system designers is creating buy-in and trust in the community for female justice workers to establish their legitimacy. Secondly, female justice workers need to balance applying human rights frameworks and laws with social norms. A referral pathway to the formal justice system, administrative officials, social workers and other allied professionals is also essential. Financial sustainability has been a challenge for community justice services worldwide. Therefore, it is important to raise funds by appropriately levying user fees, attracting grants from donors and social impact investors, and contributions from the government.

To illustrate the application of these parameters, we assess women’s courts, a state-funded women-led community justice service in India. This gives policymakers insights into possible challenges and enablers in applying these parameters. By adopting the proposed parameters and learning from existing examples of women-led community justice services, actors in the justice system can build more inclusive, accessible, and affordable justice systems.