Women's Link Worldwide presents the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards.

The jury, comprised of Juan Mendez (Argentina), president of the Center for Transitional Justice and former member of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights; Rosa Montero (Spain), writer, journalist and psychologist; and Kavita N. Ramdas (India), Executive Director of the Global Fund for Women, chose the Gavel and Bludgeon Awards. Additionally, through their votes, the public selected two decisions in each category.

The three most sexist decisions received the bronze, silver and gold Bludgeons; and the three decisions that best promoted gender equality received bronze, silver and gold Gavels.

In every country, regardless of the political system, culture or religion, what the judges and courts say has a tremendous influence on the sense of justice and in the day to day lives of people.

Even though there are national and international human rights norms, these have not yet been fully integrated into the judicial culture of our societies. Poor court decisions and verdicts persist and are based on the prejudices and stereotypes of those in charge of imparting justice. These statements can have the effect of rolling back the conditions for equality. And despite this fact, we rarely hear of them.

For this reason, Women's Link Worldwide wants to uncover them. To acknowledge those who advance gender equality and to identify those who apply the most backwards/discriminatory verdicts.

Women’s Link Worldwide has created the Gender Justice Observatory to seek out and systematize national and international court decisions. The Observatory is a free- centralized-on-line tool, which currently contains over 200 cases from 30 different countries and regions around the world, in topics related to gender discrimination, gender violence and sexual and reproductive rights.

womenslinkworldwide.org

Special Thanks to Mandona Productions.