Justice systems continue to fail women & girls - UN Women calls for urgent action to close justice gap

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day 2026, no country has reached full legal equality for women and girls and countries in East and Southern Africa are no exception.

UN Women East and Southern Africa (ESARO) warns that the justice deficit confronting women and girls across the region is deepening amid rising impunity, discrimination, and rollbacks on women’s rights.

This year’s global theme, 'Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,' reflects the urgency of a moment when justice institutions worldwide and in East and Southern Africa are falling short of the needs and rights of half the population.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s 2026 report on access to justice reveals that women globally hold only 64 per cent of the legal rights of men.

At the current rate of progress, it will take 286 years for women and girls to enjoy equal legal protection an unacceptable timeline underscored in today’s regional dialogue and echoed strongly in the remarks of UN Women ESARO’s Policy Advisor, Idil Absiye. 

Across East and Southern Africa, the barriers are particularly entrenched.

Women and girls especially those forcibly displaced, face stigma, prohibitive legal costs, inaccessible procedures, limited legal aid, and institutional responses that often lack urgency, sensitivity, or survivor-centred approaches.

Too many survivors encounter retaliation, silence, and disbelief from systems meant to protect them, reinforcing a culture of impunity and deterring help-seeking. 

The global report shows that in over 54 per cent of countries, rape is still not defined on the basis of consent, meaning many survivors are left without legal recognition or remedy.

In East and Southern Africa, gaps in consent-based laws, high rates of child marriage, and weak enforcement mechanisms continue to undermine the rights and safety of women and girls. 

At the same time, digital and technology-facilitated violence is rising sharply. Across the region and globally, 70% of women human rights defenders, journalists, and media practitioners have experienced online violence in the course of their work, and 41% have experienced attacks or harassment offline, a stark reminder that those advocating for justice are increasingly at risk. 

“These conditions deter women and girls from seeking justice and allow violations, including femicide and sexual violence, to persist unchallenged,” said Absiye.

“Justice cannot be delivered through systems built on inequality. It requires transforming the very conditions that enable injustice.”

As highlighted during ESARO’s Media & Legal Café, a flagship regional commemoration of International Women’s Day, justice demands cross-sector collaboration.

Media and legal professionals together shape public understanding of injustice, elevate survivor voices, hold institutions accountable, and influence social norms.

The media plays a vital role in shifting narratives, breaking the silence, and challenging impunity, while the legal sector ensures that rights are embedded in laws and institutional practices.

Their shared responsibility, as emphasised in the ESARO dialogue, is essential for turning rights into justice and justice into meaningful, lasting change.

There is encouraging momentum in the region. Most countries in East and Southern Africa now have domestic violence legislation, and several have strengthened constitutional protections for women and girls.

Community-based paralegals, mobile courts, gender desks, and one-stop centres are expanding access to support. 

However, laws alone cannot deliver justice. Discriminatory norms, long distances to justice institutions, language barriers, costs, and distrust of systems continue to obstruct women’s pathways to remedy.

These persistent barriers demonstrate the need for investments not only in legal reforms but in implementation, institutional accountability, and cultural change.

UN Women ESARO urges governments, justice institutions, media partners, civil society, traditional leaders, private sector actors, and communities to commit to:

• Reforming discriminatory laws, including ensuring consent-based definitions of sexual violence

• Scaling up survivor-centred justice systems, including legal aid and psychosocial support

• Investing in digital safety and protection, particularly for women journalists and human rights defenders

• Strengthening the capacity and accountability of justice institutions

• Ensuring stories lead to structural change, through ethical, survivor-sensitive reporting

As Absiye underscored, “Justice means survivors are believed, laws are enforced, and institutions challenge the norms that perpetuate inequality and violence. It means moving from rights to justice—and from justice to real, lasting change.”