2022 Africa and Middle East Regional Meeting

Gender-based violence remains a systemic challenge across OGP members, and can prevent women from participating fully in public leadership. Policy and legal responses to gender-based violence are in need of open government reforms - those that make systems and services more transparent, accessible, and responsive to the needs of those who experience gender-based violence, intimidation, or harassment. These approaches can help better address both offline and online gender-based violence experiences, whether directed at women running for office, leaders in civil society or public administration, or advocates and reformers.

This lightning talk session will bring together a diverse set of experiences to answer questions such as what specific justice concerns do women candidates or public leaders have, and what prevents them from accessing support? How can open government or open justice solutions deliver fairer and more equitable experiences for women leaders?

Questions:
What justice issues do women leaders specifically face when running for office or assuming public roles? What do these threats, harassment, intimidation, disinformation attacks look like in practice?
What prevents leaders from accessing support or redress mechanisms, whether legal or policy barriers or cultural barriers?
What psychological services or support training (if any) is available to leaders experiencing VAW-P?
What open government or open justice solutions can we build on to deliver fairer and more equitable experiences for women leaders? How do we connect across other government GBV efforts or action plans?
What policy or practice changes are needed?
Who should be involved and what is their role - party leaders, police and security sector, justice actors, electoral bodies?