Intervention by Minister Fernando Andrés Marani

March 13

Let me start thanking the Permanent Missions of The Gambia for hosting this event and the co-conveners for allowing us to participate in the presentation, in the framework of CSW, of the report of the High-level Group on Justice for Women.

It is an honour for me to speak today on behalf Ms. Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina and member of the High-Level Group.

Enhancing the Access to Justice, focused on legal empowerment for all, open justice policies, and better services to citizens, has been a priority for our Ministry of Justice in the recent years.

A society where there is a real access to justice, it is able to question its institutions, to co-create and participate in judicial processes, and to use transparency tools made available in order to improve our democracy.

To advance the access to justice, in addition to the provision of legal services, the Ministry of Justice has created specific programs: Justice 2020, the Open Justice Program, the Federal Network for Legal Representation, and the Legal Aid Hospital, among others.

In this context, we acknowledge that gender plays a central role in the development of effective policies and programs on Justice, as women and girls tend to be disproportionately affected by limited access to appropriate tools to uphold their rights.

Therefore, several programs have been implemented with the objective of tackling those challenges including an explicitly gender perspective in their mandate: the Gender Violence Victims' Attorneys Corps; the Judicial Team Specialized in Domestic, Sexual and Institutional Violence; the Program on Victims against Violence; the Program of Rescue and Accompaniment of Victims of Human Trafficking; and the implementation of electronic bracelets in cases of gender-based violence, among others.

As an example, the Program on Victims against Violence has as its primary objective the care, guidance and support of all victims of domestic and sexual violence. There is an interdisciplinary team made up of professionals (Psychologists, Social Workers, and Lawyers), who works in three areas: 1) Family Violence, 2) Sexual Violence, and 3) Sexual Exploitation and Grooming. Any individual can access the support of the team through a phone-line which is in continuous operation, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Gender Violence Victims’ Attorneys Corps, on the other hand, has as overall objective the promotion of better responses to gender violence at the national level, including by increasing the institutional spaces for specific gender-based services. This program seeks to guarantee for victims of gender violence the timely access to legal advice and free and quality legal support; while promoting the specialization of a professional group of sponsoring lawyers with adequate gender perspective and knowledge. The service offered by the Corps is being implemented through coordination and cooperation between the Judicial Branch, the Public Ministry of Defense and Prosecutor, professional associations, and other organizations and entities of civil society, at the national, provincial and municipal levels.

I know we have limited time today, but we wanted to share some of the good practices that we are implementing in our country. As co-chairs of the Task Force on Justice of the Pathfinders, Argentina is committed to championing a justice for all at the regional and international level.

Therefore, we are very happy to see published the report of the HLG and we hope this will become a powerful tool to enhance the access of justice of all women and girls.

I thank you.