Overview : The Solomon Islands Access to Justice Project supports the building and strengthening of the capacity of the Public Solicitor’s Officer (PSO) to enhance access to justice for the people of the Solomon Islands at national and provincial levels, including women, youth and marginalized groups in communities outside urban centers. The project is implemented across the provinces of the Solomon Islands through a two-tiered paralegal initiative (Provincial Paralegals and Community Legal Advocates). Gender equality is mainstreamed across all Project Outputs. The implications for women and men of planned activities are assessed on an ongoing basis. Gender equality is integrated as a cross-cutting area in activities, indicators and the financial commitments associated with each Output. The project through its design of a gender sensitive and inclusive curriculum, through employing equal number of male and female paralegals and community legal advocates and by expanding the reach of the formal justice system which is preferred by women in many cases will likely lead to improvements in gender equality and women’s empowerment. The project applies a meaningful participatory process for engaging women’s voices as well as building upon regional and global knowledge networks on issues of gender empowerment in access to justice. Further, the project incorporates indicators relating to gender equality and recognizes the constraints on women’s potential participation will not be overcome by mere physical access to justice services. |