Gender & Criminal Justice

Mainstreaming gender allows for justice projects to be developed around the understanding that sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity play a role in shaping experiences of crime and criminal justice.

This brief aims to highlight that there is a differentiated impact that laws, policies and practices have on men, women, and individuals of diverse bodily characteristics, diverse sexual orientation and/or diverse gender identities; and justice issues are sustained social power relations. Recognising this allows for responses to counter biases built into such institutions and structures and ensures that gender-sensitive understandings of the experiences, needs, priorities, capacities and rights of all individuals are taken into account in any criminal justice reform.

The thematic brief on mainstreaming gender in justice projects/programmes provides a step-by-step guidance on how to practically mainstream gender throughout programme documents.

Access the Thematic Brief on Mainstreaming Gender in Justice Projects/Programmes here. [English] [Spanish]

Resources

These resources provide practical guidance and are designed to support national governments, other UN entities or individuals working in civil society organizations. This will be updated regularly.

General

UNODC Generation Justice (GenJust) initiative [Link]
UNODC Handbook: Framework to Measure and Report on Gender-related SDG Results [English]
Website Gender and the Doha Declaration Global Programme [Link]
The Global Judicial Integrity Network: Gender-Related Judicial Integrity Issues [English]

Toolkit on Gender-Responsive non-custodial measures [English]
A Practitioner's Toolkit on Women's Access to Justice Programming [ English]
The Bangkok Rules-United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders with their Commentary [English, French, Spanish]
Handbook on Women and Imprisonment [ Arabic 2 ^nd edition, English 2 ^nd edition, Russian, Spanish, Turkish]
Information note for criminal justice practitioners on non-custodial measures for women offenders [ English]
Afghanistan: Female Prisoners and their social reintegration [ English]

Violence against Women / Gender-based Violence

Handbook for the judicary on effective criminal justice response to gender-based violence against women and girls [English]
The Impact of Covid-19 on Criminal Justice System Responses to Gender-based Violence Against Women : a Global Review of Emerging Evidence [English]
Blueprint for action: Implementation plan for criminal justice systems to prevent and respond to violence against women [English]
Handbook on Effective Police Responses to Violence against Women [ English, French, Spanish]
Resource Book for Trainers on Effective Prosecution Responses to Violence against Women and Girls [ English]
Toolkit on Strengthening the Medico-Legal Response to Sexual Violence [ English]
Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence [ Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish]

E-Learning & Online-Training

Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence [ Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish]
Training Tool on Legal Aid for Women in Criminal Justice Systems in Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone [English]

23.2 Alternatives to Imprisonment for Women Offenders [English]

Judicial Conduct and Ethics: Independence [Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish]

Judicial Conduct and Ethics: Impartiality and Integrity [Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish]

Juridical Conduct and Ethics: Propriety, Equality and Competence and Diligence [Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish]
Training curriculum on Women and Imprisonment Version 1.0 [ Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, English, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian]
Training Curriculum on Effective Police Responses to Violence against Women [English, French, Spanish]
Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence:
Modules 1-5 : Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese

Module 6 : Implementation Guide Arabic, English, French, Spanish

Module 7 :Costing Tool English

United Nations

Office on Drugs and Crime

Gender & Criminal Justice

Resources

General

Violence against Women / Gender-based Violence

E-Learning & Online-Training