Crossroads International is increasing access to justice for women and girls especially survivors of gender-based violence. In Ghana, for example, nearly 30 percent of women reported experiencing at least one form of domestic violence (2016). Gender discrimination within social and political spaces limits women’s ability to exercise their rights. The lack of knowledge about their rights hinders women’s and girls’ access to justice when they experience abuse and, in many instances, even when they do come forward the justice system fails them. Through outreach and training to increase legal literacy, women and girls are learning about their rights. Crossroads volunteers also work alongside local partners such as Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana to advocate and train police, lawyers and the judiciary about existing domestic violence legislation and working with victims of abuse. Together we are ensuring women, men and children know how they can access their rights.
Why this program
- Discriminatory cultural norms limit women’s and girls’ full exercise of their rights
- For example, 65% of women and 56% of men in Ghana agreed that women were to blame for rape if wearing revealing clothes
Impact
- 255 Ghanaian legal literacy volunteers are now trained an supporting people in their communities to access justice
- More than 53,000 people reached in 140 communities
Testimony
“The training has been educational. As an honorable assembly woman, I will make sure that cases that I am incapable of handling will be referred to the appropriate authority to be dealt with. I will also reach out to my community members with this knowledge.” – Hon. Theresa E. Ahadzi, legal literacy volunteer (Assemblywoman, Asotwene – UWA
