Keynote Address by the Director-General, Ms Jan Beagle
CSW70, New York
16 March 2026
Chief Justice Koome, Excellencies, Colleagues and friends,
It is a pleasure to join you for this important conversation.
My thanks to Justice Koome and the Kenyan Judiciary for organizing this event and to President Gerken and the Ford Foundation, for hosting us.
As Justice Koome put it so eloquently, there is a persistent gap between law and reality.
The justice journeys of the vast majority of women and girls around the world are shaped by weak or unresponsive institutions, distance from courts, lack of legal awareness, social and economic barriers, and fear of stigma or retaliation.
IDLO’s experience confirms that closing the gender gap requires a people-centred approach.
This means placing the needs, experiences, and rights of individuals and communities at the heart of justice system design.
I want to congratulate Justice Koome on the multi-door Justice Model, which has helped to bring justice closer to the people of Kenya.
IDLO has been a proud partner of the Judiciary for the last fifteen years.
In 2023, I had the opportunity to visit innovative platforms like the Small Claims Courts, the GBV Courts, Court Annexed Mediation Centres, digital e-justice systems, and Commerce Justice Court Users Committees, which all address the barriers faced by women and girls. They also strengthen public trust and increase investor confidence which supports Kenya’s broader economic and social development agenda.
I would love to tell you more about our work in Kenya, but today I have been asked to speak from a global perspective.
Over the past four decades IDLO has worked in some hundred countries globally.
And while each context is unique, over the course of our work we have identified some common factors that can drive change.
Allow me to share three with you today, and to give you some concrete examples of what is working.
First, we must take justice services to where the needs are.
For the vast majority of people around the world, justice doesn’t happen in a courtroom. Most people, especially women, resolve their disputes through customary and informal systems.
Community-based dispute resolution mechanisms, legal aid services, mobile courts, and digital platforms, offer pathways that can help ensure that women are able to seek remedies safely and effectively.
In Somalia and Somaliland, for instance, we partnered with the government to set up 23 Alternative Dispute Resolution Centres that use customary law, integrated with human rights principles and national law.
While most of the disputes brought were related to land or family matters, we found that very few women were actually approaching the Centres.
It became clear that the lack of women adjudicators was a key barrier.
In response, we moved quickly to increase the number of women in client facing positions, including 22% of the adjudicators.
Last year the centres handled nearly 3300 cases and over 50% of those visiting the Centres were women.
Second, justice institutions must become more responsive to the needs of women and girls.
This means adopting gender-sensitive procedures, strengthening judicial capacity to address issues that affect women in their every day lives, including gender-based violence and discrimination, eliminating discriminatory laws, and ensuring that justice processes are accessible and respectful.
In Ukraine, IDLO is strengthening linkages between justice institutions and service providers and improving support for women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, through the establishment of Victim Witness Coordination Centres.
By connecting survivors with medical, psychological, and legal assistance, these centres help ensure that justice processes are more accessible and responsive to their needs.
It is essential that women have a leading role in justice institutions – they bring the lived realities of women into the courts, and help to address patriarchal interpretations of the law and persistent social norms that often limit women’s access to justice.
Kenya again offers an inspiring example.
Justice Koome’s leadership as Kenya’s first female Chief Justice, and the appointment of many women in key leadership roles, has been a transformational force.
IDLO has partnered with the Kenyan Judiciary since 2011 to strengthen justice delivery and embed gender equality within justice institutions.
We supported the Judiciary’s first gender audit, which helped identify institutional barriers and informed significant reforms, including the adoption of the Judiciary’s Gender Mainstreaming and Sexual Harassment Policies.
Just last month, the Judiciary established an Employee Protection Unit.
We are sharing this experience with other countries in the region, and beyond. We have recently launched a new report that synthesizes lessons from our work on promoting legal equality across multiple country contexts.
Recommendations include strengthening enforcement mechanisms, improving and disaggregating data, supporting strategic litigation and, especially, ensuring sustained political commitment and adequate financing.
My third, and final point, is that we must empower women to understand and exercise their rights so that they can navigate justice systems and seek redress when their rights are violated.
In Uganda, IDLO has partnered with civil society to engage with 36,000 community members, including some 17,000 women and girls, through community barazas, mobile legal aid clinics, radio programmes and public awareness campaigns.
This outreach focused on women’s legal rights, but also the benefits to communities that come from women having equal access to resources and representation.
Men and boys must be part of the conversation and of the solution.
An external evaluation of this programme found a 16% increase in women taking legal action to claim their rights.
Interestingly, there was also evidence of behavioural change in men and boys, including clan leaders, demonstrated by more recognition of women’s rights and more equitable decisions from traditional courts.
In conclusion, access to justice for women and girls is about ensuring that equality under the law becomes lived reality for women and girls worldwide.
The progress we see in Kenya demonstrates what is possible when justice systems reach communities, institutions embrace innovation, we build broad partnerships for change, and women are empowered to claim their rights.
Our challenge now is to ensure that these lessons inform justice reform efforts around the world.
Because when justice works for women and girls, it works better for everyone.
Empowering women through the rule of law creates lasting change. It leads to more resilient families and communities, more dynamic economies, and more peaceful and inclusive societies.
IDLO looks forward to continuing to partner with Kenya, and all of you, to strengthen the rule of law as an essential pathway to gender equality.