Engendering Access to Justice for the Poorest and Most Vulnerable in Sub-Saharan Africa

This chapter provides the context from which this volume evolved, as well as the situational backdrop for the chapters that follow. It highlights the fact that access to justice is an enabling right relevant to the attainment of all SDGs, but that it is all too commonly inter-twined with key socio-economic factors and poverty, resulting in both direct and indirect manifestations of discrimination and lack of access. Rather than adopting an exclusively legalistic approach, the volume features a series of multi-disciplinary, country case studies, which combined analyse the varying and complicated factors limiting access to justice for children and women in sub-Saharan Africa. In recognising that access to justice is a transversal and essential element in achieving both rights and development goals, this volume seeks to: 1) explore the intersections of poverty, gender and access to justice in the sub-Saharan region; 2) raise awareness of the problems faced by women and children in the region’s justice system; 3) analyse both the policies that have worked and those that have failed, and by doing so support future programs, policies and discourses aimed at improving the rule of law and equality of justice, as well as halting the multi-dimensional deprivations that create a compounded cycle of poverty for women (and a large segment of the population generally) in sub-Saharan Africa; and 4) encourage policy-makers and development practitioners to identify projects, programmes and policies that can assist towards the above aims over the next few years.