What is the mentoring programme?

Mentoring is a methodology aiming to empower legal professionals, judges, and prosecutors, to strengthen women’s access to justice. Through peer-to-peer learning, mentees explore innovative approaches and address the gender-based inequalities they encounter in their practice. The Mentoring Programme is designed to enhance the continuous learning of justice sector practitioners, specifically judges and prosecutors. By fostering open dialogue and promoting human rights approaches, the mentoring programmes takes a different approach from that used in formal teaching and establishes a connection between theories about access to justice, international human rights law and the daily practice of the practitioners. The mentoring programme is currently being implemented in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.  

For more information, visit the web page of the Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye regional action on “Women's Access to Justice in the Western Balkans”.

 Download the guide for developing a mentoring programme on women’s access to justice for legal professionals in English.
Also available in: ALB, BiH, MKD, MNE, SRB

 What are the greatest challenges by women as justice users?

Lack of gender-sensitivity and awareness among legal professionals.

The influence of harmful gender stereotypes and bias in the exercise of legal professions.

Women face many obstacles in accessing justice, despite formal commitments in the Eastern Partnership region, as in most Council of Europe member states. These barriers rarely reflect problems with the content of laws and policies formally upheld but rather from procedures and practices in implementing them.

 And in the Eastern Partnership Region?

The mentoring programme has been implemented in the Eastern Partnership Regions since 2019 under the EU and Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance. You can access the PGG Mentoring Programme website here

For more information, visit the web page of the Partnership for Good Governance regional project “Women's Access to Justice: implementing Council of Europe’s gender equality and violence against women standards”.

 

 
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Back European Union and Council of Europe support civil society to empower women in Türkiye

Ankara 18 July 2024
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European Union and Council of Europe support civil society to empower women in Türkiye

The joint European Union/Council of Europe action “Fostering women's access to justice in Türkiye” is supporting the capacities of civil society organisations through a grant scheme. Grants were awarded to three civil society organisations, namely Hayat Sende Gençlik Akademisi Derneği (Hayat Sende Youth Academy Association), Şiddeti Önleme ve Rehabilitasyon Derneği (Violence Prevention and Rehabilitation Association – İMDAT) and Sosyal Gelişim ve Dayanışma Derneği (Association for Social Development and Aid Mobilization – ASAM).

The organisations will implement activities that will directly benefit the most vulnerable women and girls throughout Türkiye. They will provide capacity building to municipalities and legal professionals, empower women and girls by enhancing their legal literacy and increase the awareness of the Turkish society on the barriers to women’s access to justice. By addressing these critical areas, these efforts seek to create a more just and equitable environment for all women and girls in Türkiye.

The action organised a meeting with the grantees to inform them about the grant rules and procedures on 18 July 2024.

The action is part of the European Union and Council of Europe’s joint programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye". The action contributes to enhancing accessibility and quality of legal aid services for women and supporting key stakeholders, including civil society, as well as to increasing legal awareness and literacy among women in Türkiye.

TESTIMONIALS  

 

 “In my group, the mentees, all judges and one clerk, brought some samples of their own past cases/judgements to discuss, compare the reasoning and see if there could be ways to improve them” 

Mentor, Judge from Appellate court

“Motivation in my group was high to participate… Exchanging own experiences was important, and the fact that it was not formal made it wonderful. We found legal solutions to improve access to justice for women".

Mentor, Judge

“[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”

Mentor, lecturer

“Our candidates for magistrate are having the certificate of the course on Women access to justice. Under the curricula of Family Law I added as an obligation to fulfil this course and they showed a lot of interest.”

Mentor, Member of the High Prosecutorial Council

“To be mentor...Very demanding and time consuming. The great thing is that my mentees are highly motivated!…. My mentees and I immediately created a joint group to share thoughts and ideas about what we talked about during the meeting. It is good because there we can think together and look for the best solutions for certain issues. This also encourages ideas.” 

Mentor, Senior public prosecutor

*Ovaj naziv je bez prejudiciranja statusa, i u skladu je sa Rezolucijom Savjeta bezbjednosti Ujedinjenih nacija 1244 i mišljenjem Međunarodnog suda pravde o Deklaraciji o nezavisnosti Kosova.