Improving Judge´s gender perspective capacities by redesigning pedagogical methods

Our challenge is that gender violence filed cases have little access to justice do to estructural and operational problems, but also, once a case reaches a Judge, many times verdicts end up acquitting the offenders; therefore, Judges lack a gender perspective in their judicial rulings.

The Judicial Council reports that from August 2014 to March of this year, 498,344 violations of violence against women or members of the family nucleus have been registered. Of this total, 157,689 sentences have been issued, which is equivalent to 31.63% of the cases filed. This implies that approximately 340,655 cases remain unsolved and thus, have had no justice. The lack of access to justice is due to a series of limitations, such as few gender violence specialized units throughout the country, the high procedural burden faced by judges, which impairs the thoughtful analysis of each case, the lack of training, and the lack of awareness towards this serious problem from a gender perspective. These deficiencies not only perpetuate impunity, but also affect victims' confidence in the judicial system. Ecuador´s AccLab has contributed to strengthen the judicial system with a "bottom-up" approach. That is, aiming to generate evidence to inform public policy design and to improve capacity building. The starting point was to create listening mechanisms for families of femicide victims who are users of the justice system. In 2022 and 2023, 15 families of femicide victims created memory routes for the victims of femicide on digital maps. This powerful material includes testimonies from the families honoring the memory of their daughters, as well as accounts of their fight for justice, reparations, and non-repetition. It was included in Spotlight Global Compendium of “most innovative” initiatives. This material was later incorporated into training processes for 374 prosecutors (2023) and this year, 2024, we started to work with Judges, following the premise that they don´t lack information (regulation knowledge from a cognitive and memoristic point of view), but instead, cultural and gender biases are manifested in their judicial rulings. Firstly, it necessary to conduct a diagnosis on the current state of Judges´ capacities on gender perspective within judicial units when handling cases of violence. The Judicial System School has a 600 hour training program and for this reason we wanted to find some pain points. If Judges are so widely trained (if they in fact were), why are so many offenders acquitted?

Firstly, we found it necessary to conduct a diagnosis on the current state of Judges´ capacities on gender perspective within judicial units when handling cases of violence.  The Judicial System School has a 600 hour training program and for this reason we wanted to find some pain points. If Judges are so widely trained (if they in fact were), why are so many offenders acquitted? The diagnosis triangulates data, as we parted from a hypothesis that there´s always a gap between "theoretical reporting" to actual behaviour. That is, we wanted to contrast information provided by interviews and surveys, to actually see if this was coherent with verdicts (behaviour). The diagnosis was developed based on in-depth interviews, a survey responded by more than 80 judges, and an analysis of judicial verdicts through court rulings. Our goal was to understand the operational capacity to address cases of violence, identify potential bottlenecks or biases in judicial performance, and also analyze what currently exists, what works, and what doesn’t in the training offer. Based on results, we designed a Judges Training Module, that incorporates popular education methods. In contrast with other stakeholders, as a Lab, we make sure that we design instruments, tools, and in this case, training modules, based on real necessities. The user-center design is fundamental and also, challenging traditional training methods by incorporating innovation in traditional spheres.

Ecuador´s AccLab has contributed to strengthen the judicial system with a "bottom-up"  by generating evidence to inform public policy design and to improve capacity building. Bridging the voices of the most affected to institutional response.

Why are so many offenders acquitted? Does this type of verdict reflect Judges gender biases and /or other pain points in the justice system? How can we improve training processes to alter cultural and gender biases to improve rulings related to gender violence.

Parting from a hypothesis that there´s always a gap between "theoretical reporting" to actual behaviour, we we wanted to contrast information provided by interviews and surveys, to actually see if this was coherent with verdicts (behaviour).  We designed a diagnosis based on in-depth interviews, a survey of more than 80 judges, and an analysis of judicial verdicts through court rulings. Our goal was to understand the operational capacity to address cases of violence, identify potential bottlenecks or biases in judicial performance, and also analyze what currently exists, what works, and what doesn’t in the training offer.

We analyzed information at a province level because data was not disagregated at judicial unit level.

WIth the diagnosis, a customized training module can be designed and, it it is effective, Judicial System adopts it and includes it in its national training curriculum.