From 18-21 May 2025, judges and prosecutors, successful graduates of the Mentoring Programme for Legal Professionals on Women’s Access to Justice, from the six Beneficiaries in the Western Balkans, participated in a study visit to Stockholm, Sweden.

The visit focused on how Sweden mainstreams gender across its judiciary with concrete examples stemming from both institutional and practice levels as well as on how gender-responsive training and discrimination redress mechanisms are implemented in practice.

These exchanges are part of the continuous efforts to strengthen the capacities of legal professionals and  contribute to dismantling barriers to justice faced by women and girls—especially victims of violence and those from disadvantaged communities.

The discussions were very practical and addressed concretely how gender bias and stereotypes can disproportionately  and negatively affect women in search of redress. Paul Murray, Public Prosecutor, Swedish Prosecution Authorities  highlighted that “one of the biggest prejudices in the judiciary is to say we [prosecutors] have no prejudices”.

One participant highlighted even more the crucial and key role legal professionals play in eradicating gendered barriers in the justice chain [Mentoring] is a process. Stereotypes are so deep that they are difficult to identify, and so it is important to showcase progress on how we overcome our own stereotypes. [We can] speak the language of mentees, and come to discoveries together.

The study visit is organised in the framework of the joint EU and Council of Europe “Horizontal  Facility III” programme  and its regional action “Women access to justice in the Western Balkans”, which is assisting beneficiaries in the Western Balkans in the process of strengthening access to justice for women, in line with the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention.