Introduction
Law is omnipresent and it impacts different aspects of people’s lives. The significance of law and rights in affecting people’s lives is increasing with the expansion of the legal domain into public and private spheres. Law helps an individual by providing them the right to enjoy their life lawfully and to live as free and autonomous agents of society. Disparities in access to rights are redressed through rules and institutions established or resulting from such rules, be they social or legal. However, these disparities affect both men and women but women are lagging behind men in many fields. These inequalities could be refusing women the right to acquire, manage, and dispose of assets in their name which restricts their financial opportunities, economic productivity, and bargaining power in the household. Law needs to take into contemplation how differences in women’s and men’s social, economic, and legal rights affect the way they experience law and justice in their lives.Both men and women often face alike issues in accessing justice but anyhow women often have to face additional barriers.

The judiciary as a change agent for gender equality
The judiciary can bring important changes in society when the judiciary operates without gender bias and supports gender equality. The decisions given by the judiciary becomes a norm for all the people in the society through established mediums of state-citizen engagement and the influence of the court goes beyond those who come in direct contact with them. However, it is not always that the judiciary is effective in upholding gender equality as a majority of people may not be influenced by the judicial decisions for instance customary laws might govern a lot of people.

On the issue of gender equality a judge’s personal views and life experiences may come into play
in some instances. These views, however, may be tempered by a better understanding of the
inequities and discrimination encountered by women due to the impact of poverty, race, illiteracy,
alcohol and drug abuse as well as sexual and physical abuse; also the recognition that in some
instances the courts and the judiciary are the only recourse available to women to protect and
enforce their basic human rights. The judiciary stands as a bulwark against continuous violation
of all human rights with the utilisation of international norms and treaties ratified by states beingthe instruments for enforcement of these rights particularly in relation to women. In fact, in someof our jurisdictions where there are codes of conduct for the judiciary based on the Bangalore
Principles, judges are encouraged to keep themselves informed about relevant developments ininternational law including the international norms and to conform to such norms far as is feasible.The code of conduct of Guyana and in fact our Code of the Caribbean Court of Justice contain thisprovision.
A few examples will illustrate a new trend across jurisdictions and the enlightened approach of
the judiciary in the domestic courts of some states.
There is the well known case of Attorney General of Botswana v. Unity Dow (1992) in which
both the High Court and the Court of Appeal upheld a challenge to provisions of the State’s
nationality law which did not permit a Botswanan woman married to a non-Botswanan man to
pass on her citizenship to the children of the marriage. In the Court of Appeal reference was madeto CEDAW which Botswana had ratified, and the status of international treaties and conventions in domestic laws was considered.

Female representation in the judiciary is varied. In some countries, women make up more than 30 percent of judges, for example in Italy (52.9 percent) El Salvador (48.7 percent), France (70.9 percent), Germany (44.5 percent), Uganda (44 percent), Spain (40 percent) and the USA (34.7 percent). While in others, the numbers are very low. Kuwait has no females, while Iraq has just 7.6 percent, and Nepal 3.8 percent.But even in the places where more women have been appointed as judges, they are still vastly underrepresented in top-ranking positions. In El Salvador female representation is 35.7 percent in higher courts and 50.4 percent in lower courts while in Germany, female representation is 29.3 percent in higher courts compared to 44.8 percent in lower courts.Effective responses to these concerns require international and national collaboration. Considering this, UNDP and the Commonwealth Secretariat, together with the International Association of Women Judges, is launching the gender diversity in the judiciary initiative, dedicated to building women’s full and effective participation in the legal profession.Together we aim to use data on female representation and barriers to gender diverse judicial institutions to provide national decision-makers with evidence to increase gender parity and improve the quality of women’s judicial decision making.

It is my sincere wish and hope that we leave this colloquium with firm resolve to eliminate gender
inequality within our judicial systems by utilising all available methods in ensuring justice for all
women whenever injustices and discrimination rear their ugly heads.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge