Judges, prosecutors and representatives from judicial training institutions across the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans regions met in Tirana, to assess the results of the mentoring programme for legal professionals on women’s access to justice.
A series of thematic exchanges were held on technology-facilitated violence against women, opportunities and risks for gender equality when using artificial intelligence in judiciaries, and efforts to enhance regional co-operation of judicial training institutions in the interest of improving to women’s access to justice.
The 2023 Reykjavík Declaration from fourth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe recalls that the gender equality and the full, equal and effective participation of women in public and private decision-making processes are essential to the rule of law, democracy, and sustainable development.
In this sense, the European Union and the Council of Europe through their joint work are supporting the progress in access to justice for women in the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkan countries, through tailor-made assistance to the authorities to implement the standards set in the Istanbul Convention.
The mentoring programme for legal professionals on women’s access to justice is a key tool to address the constant barriers at the legal, institutional, and socio-cultural levels that women face when trying to access justice.
This event is organised within the action “Women’s access to justice in the Western Balkans” and the project “Women's Access to Justice: implementing Council of Europe’s gender equality and violence against women standards”, which are respectively parts of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programmes “Horizontal Facility III for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” and “Partnership for Good Governance”.
