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Women judges are playing increasingly prominent roles in many African judiciaries, yet there remains very little comparative research on the subject. Drawing on extensive cross-national data and theoretical and empirical analysis, this book provides a timely and broad-ranging assessment of gender and judging in African judiciaries.
Employing different theoretical approaches, the book investigates how women have fared within domestic African judiciaries as both actors and litigants. It explores how women negotiate multiple hierarchies to access the judiciary, and how gender-related issues are handled in courts. The chapters in the book provide policy, theoretical and practical prescriptions to the challenges identified, and offer recommendations for the future directions of gender and judging in the post-COVID-19 era, including the role of technology, artificial intelligence, social media, and institutional transformations that can help promote women's rights.
Bringing together specific cases from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa and regional bodies such as ECOWAS and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and covering a broad range of thematic reflections, this book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of African law, judicial politics, judicial training, and gender studies. It will also be useful to bilateral and multilateral donor institutions financing gender-sensitive judicial reform programs, particularly in Africa.
The Open Access version of this book, available at
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9780429327865/gender-judging-courts-africa-jarpa-dawuni, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Gender and judging across Africa: A case of old wine in new skins or new wine in old skins? PART I: Women and gender-related jurisprudence in the courts 2. An analysis of gender equality jurisprudence by Kenyan courts since the enactment of the 2010 constitution 3. To win both the battle and the war: Judicial determination of property rights of spouses in Ghana 4. "Judging" lesbians: Prospects for advancing lesbian rights protection through the courts in Nigeria PART II: Emerging gender issues in the courts 5. Femicide and judging: Social media as an alternative online court in Kenya 6. Judging beyond gender: Maternal and infant mortality as an emerging gender-related issue in Ugandan courts 7. Revenge pornography as a form of sexual and gender-based violence in Ghana: Emerging judicial issues 8. Litigating gender discrimination cases before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights PART III: Judicial appointments and gender representation in regional bodies and national courts 9. The feminine face of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 10. Pursuing gender equality through the courts: The role of South Africa’s women judges 11. One sauce for the goose, another for the gander: Zambian women judges and perceptions of illegitimacy PART IV: Judicial training and gender 12. Unlocking gender inequality through judicial training: Insights from Tanzania 13. Gender awareness training in Judicial Training Institutes in Kenya and Uganda PART V: COVID-19 pandemic and gender-related judicial issues 14. The COVID-19 pandemic, courts, and the justice system 15. Sexual and gender-based violence in Uganda during the COVID19 pandemic: New and old lessons for the criminal justice system
About the author
J. Jarpa Dawuni is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, USA and the Founding Director of the Howard University Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership. She is the founder and Executive Director of the non-profit organization, the Institute for African Women in Law (IAWL).
Summary
This book is a timely and broad-ranging assessment of gender and judging in African judiciaries. It will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners of African law, judicial politics, judicial training, and gender studies, and donor institutions financing gender sensitive judicial reform programs.
