The Judiciary plays an important role in upholding the rule of law, delivering justice and protecting human rights. Courts adjudicate various issues and interpret different areas of law that impact on multiple aspects of people’s lives. In making judicial decisions, judges and magistrates can thus impede or contribute to a country’s social progress, economic development and political stability. As such, diversity is an essential component of a fair, impartial and legitimate judiciary. Bringing diverse experiences and perspectives to bear allows for representative judicial decision making that is better informed, builds public confidence in the justice system and supports social cohesion and the ‘sustaining peace’ framework.[1] Since the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979 which places a responsibility on States parties to ensure that women participate without discrimination in public life, countries have taken important steps to improve gender parity in the [1] UN General Assembly, A/RES/70/262 (12 May 2016); UN Security Council, Resolution 2282, S/RES/2282 (2016). judiciary. For example, women make up over 30% of judges in Italy (52.9%) El Salvador (48.7%), France (70.9%), Germany (44.5%), Uganda (44%), Spain (40%) and USA (34.7%)[1]. In Africa, for instance, there are currently seven women Chief Justices in African countries- Ethiopia, Niger, Lesotho, Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia. Women's representation on constitutional courts in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, is 23.95%, lower than the world average (24.02%) but higher than regions such as South Asia (8.13%) and the Middle East and North Africa. Despite this, courts in many countries do not adequately reflect the gender diversity of the communities they serve. Female representation is varied and far in between with some countries scoring very low, for example, Kuwait (0%), Iraq (7.6), Nepal (3.8%). Where there have been more women appointed as judges, they are still vastly underrepresented in top-ranking judicial positions and upper courts[2] and usually well represented in family and other courts of first instance. For example, in El Salvador female representation is 35.7% in higher-level courts and 50.4% in lower-level courts while in Germany, female representation is 29.3% in higher-level courts compared to 44.8% in lower-level courts. There are approximately 40 female judges in South Sudan, female representation amongst the senior non-judicial/administrative staff as well as the national judicial service commission or appointment body is critical to decision-making. South Sudanese women judges also encounter challenges in balancing work/life commitments, persisting gender stereotypes, inadequate professional development opportunities, language barriers[3] and gender bias in entering the legal profession. These obstacles prevent women lawyers in South Sudan from rising in their field to enter the judicial workforce and obtaining promotions within the judiciary. Stringent requirements for judicial appointments and selection methods, which tend to favor existing patriarchal structures, also tend to prevent women from becoming top judges. Often, these requirements arise from the legal systems all impacting differently on the inclusion and promotion of women to the judicial institutions. Lack of available recorded data on levels of female representation in South Sudan and the quality of their decisions affect the advancement of more gender diverse judiciary in South Sudan. South Sudanese women judges face several challenges compounded with other demographic factors taken into consideration. For example, women belonging to a particular minority ethnic group may be more underrepresented in the judiciary than when looking at the representation of either women or that ethnic group alone. Also, the intersectionality of gender with age may signal positive or negative trends within the country over time. Therefore, the intersectionality of gender with other characteristics, including age, disability status, ethnic groups, and linguistic groups are crucial in providing a more robust picture of representation in the South Sudanese judiciary. The anticipated Judicial Reforms in the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement on the resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) provides an opportunity for South Sudan to advance gender diversity through its gender provision of at least 35% for the participation of women in decision making, therefore understanding the current representation status and its benefits through the provision of clear data and analysis of the current levels of women representation in the Judiciary is crucial. Such data can help identify the barriers to women’s judicial representation and leadership, inform key stakeholders about the scope of the problem and persuade them to launch targeted responses aimed at increasing judicial gender diversity which is crucial for maintaining public confidence and enhancing women’s access to justice. The ability to generate such persuasive data can help to systematically trace improvements and trends over time. Against the backdrop, UNDP South Sudan seeks the services of an International Consultant to examine the number of women in the Judiciary at all levels and produce a report with recommendations that can be used as an advocacy tool to the Ad hoc Judicial Reforms Committee and other stakeholders to advance gender diversity. [1] This data is based on responses from a pilot survey conducted in 2018 on representation in the judiciary for purposes of the data collection methodological development for SDG 16.7.1, as well as the International Commission of Jurists’ Women and the Judiciary report (2014), https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Universal-Women-and-Judiciary-Gva-For-1-Publications-Conference-Report-2014-ENG.pdf [2] UN Women, UNDP, UNODC, and OHCHR, A Practitioner’s Toolkit on Women’s Access to Justice Programming (2018). [3] Many professional legal practitioners had their studies in Arabic before the secession from Sudan. Scope of Work This initiative will study, review, and establish current levels of female representation in the judiciary across South Sudan, identify barriers to a gender diverse institution, identify gaps in quality decision making and propose effective strategies for promoting gender parity in the judiciary. The study should seek qualitative data in addition to quantitative data, including through surveys on the appointment and promotion process and on barriers women within the judiciary face such as gender discrimination, harassment, and unconscious bias. Data collected in this study could be supplemented by existing literature and sources of data, including data collected by UNDP to develop the data collection methodology for SDG 16.7.1, data collected by the World Bank on female judges in constitutional courts and by UNODC on female judges in criminal courts, as well as a Ministry of Gender, Child and Social welfare UNDP supported mapping and assessment on Gender mainstreaming in Public Administration at the national level The initiative will also identify and involve several stakeholders including the justice actors, security sector actors and civil society organizations such as the Bar Association and FIDA South Sudan as well as the academia.
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