SAHR

Gender Justice Accelerator

The SAHR Gender Justice Accelerator program it is the first and only one of its kind globally that provides dedicated mentorship to high-potential individuals from civil society (often marginalized or under-represented) who are at the cusp of an significant opportunity to end Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) through law/policy.

More specifically, it is a twelve-month mentorship program that prepares civil society leaders (Fellows) with the skills and tools they need to meaningfully participate in SGBV law and policy-making and implementation.

The Accelerator fosters transformation through a comprehensive framework, comprising legal mentorship, workshops, and peer collaboration. Fellows emerge equipped with a roadmap for their local policy and legal initiatives, professional skills, and enduring connections with fellow advocates.

SAHR’s commitment extends beyond empowerment; we are dedicated to cultivating a cadre of influential leaders who can navigate the policy and decision-making realms with efficacy, ultimately working towards eradicating SGBV. Through our work, we nurture leadership and amplify voices that often go unheard in pivotal decision-making processes.

How it Works

1

Fellows receive a grant of USD $3,000 to put their ideas into action and collaborate with subject matter experts and other leaders and changemakers through our community of practice.
2
The Accelerator Program provides Fellows with a safe space and the resources to
- Focus on local priorities and areas of concern related to SGBV, and
- Test new ideas and approaches for bringing about systemic legal and policy change on the relevant SGBV issues affecting their communities.
3

Fellows benefit from the Accelerator Program by:
• Engaging in specialized skills-building workshops to enhance their technical knowledge and understanding and
• Learning from, building relationships and growing their networks with other human rights and gender justice leaders and changemakers.
4

During the Accelerator Program, Fellows use their expertise to:
• Train local community leaders, law enforcement officers and/or legal professionals (paralegals, lawyers, judges etc.) and
• Respond to SGBV cases in an intersectional, trauma-informed and survivor-centered way.

Impact so far:

2020-2021

Since the launch of the Accelerator in 2020/2021, SAHR received over 300 applications, from 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, South West Asia, Central and South Asia. Thirteen applicants were appointed as fellows.

2022

Through the 2022 fellowship cycle, we mentored 6 civil society leaders on multiple gender justice projects targeting widespread and systematic sexual violence committed in Argentina (the municipality of Buenos Aires), Pakistan (university), Nigeria (community affected by Boko Haram), Mexico (a prison) and Indonesia (disabled community in Banda Aceh).

2023-Present

Through the 2023/2024 fellowship cycle, we have been mentoring 6 human rights defenders from Kenya, Afghanistan and Argentina to:

Research and document incidences of SGBV in their communities
Draft local and policy responses to SGBV
Train a network of 30 paralegals and;
Advise on cases of sexual and gender-based violence

The Accelerator Program uses the following approaches to law and policy reform and SGBV case representation and advocacy:

Intersectional to take into account victims’ multiple vulnerabilities
Trauma-informed to take into account of victims’ trauma
Survivor-centered to put survivors’ well-being, security and choices at the heart of our response.

SAHR’s 2023-2024 Fellows

Hagin Watwai and Norah Wakesa

Hagin and Norah are dedicated advocates for women’s rights in rural Kenya. Hagin, with six years of experience as a paralegal, serves as the Programs Co-ordinator at GUMZO Community-Based Organisation, addressing human rights violations. Norah, a psychologist, leads economic empowerment initiatives for rural women through table banking and founded a support group for Gender-Based Violence survivors, empowering them to report and overcome their experiences. Together, they have made a lasting impact in their communities.

Read their report
Isabella Mwangi

Isabella is a human rights lawyer with 10 years of experience, specializing in women’s and children’s rights. Her passion for using the law as a tool for sustainable development, especially in advancing gender equality, has driven her work throughout her career. Isabella’s dedication to justice and human rights has made a lasting impact in her field.
Jimena Gibertoni and Yamila Carballido

Jimena is an independent lawyer in Buenos Aires, specializing in gender-based violence cases involving women and the LGBTQIA+ community. She co-founded the Red de Abogadas Feministas to seek justice for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and gender discrimination. Yamila, an Argentinian human rights lawyer, focuses on Criminal Law and provides legal counsel at the Red de Abogadas Feministas, bringing a strong gender perspective to her work.

Read their Report
Enjeela Hedayat

Enjeela is a lawyer from Afghanistan dedicated to defending women’s human rights and democratic values. She has led numerous projects focused on empowering women and eliminating violence against them. Previously, she worked with the Afghanistan Civil Society Forum and conducted research on community attitudes toward the Taliban and the challenges faced by human rights defenders in Kunduz province.

Meetings and workshops

On August 9th, 2024, we partnered with Gumzo Youth Group to train a new batch of paralegals from Bungoma, Kenya who are serving survivors of SGBV in their communities.
Our goal: to equip them with the skills necessary to document cases of SGBV effectively.
We examined what makes violence "gendered" and discussed the importance of a survivor-centered approach, and the nuances of documenting sensitive cases.
Objectives:
• Examine gender-competent approaches to documentation.
• Ensure documentation processes prioritize the survivor’s well-being and autonomy.
• Highlight the critical role of accurate, comprehensive documentation in legal advocacy.
Outcomes: The paralegals left the workshop with a deeper understanding of how to interview survivors; how to manage and document cases; and the importance of approaching each case with empathy and respect.
Reflections: For SAHR, we acknowledge the indispensable role that paralegals play. They are often the first line of support for survivors, and their ability to document accurately can make a significant difference in the outcomes of these cases.
On July 22, 2024, we had our Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) session last week with Hagin and Bridgette, our Fellows (and paralegals) from Kenya.
With this learning session we reinforced our faith in SAHR's Gender Justice Accelerator Program. We dedicated ourselves to these individuals and they took our small bites of support to establish a sustainable 30-strong paralegal network to support survivors of GBV.
Our objective: to answer the question on how do we measure impact?
Our outcome: Impact may occur out of a single advocacy campaign or contrarily, at a tipping point when critical mass coincides with a political climate change. The efforts in advocacy alone don't tell the whole story of change.
At Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR), we are really focused on the advocates themselves! We are not too concerned with the very direct and immediate outcomes of "projects". We quantify and report that too. But we are more invested in the life journey of our fellows and advocates - their legitimacy, resources, and competencies. There are multiple ways of knowing beyond traditional quantitative methods.
Last August 2024, at the end of their fellowship, our fellows, Jimena Gibertoni and Yamila Carballido from Argentina had the opportunity to reflect on their project, which focuses on advocating for Gender-competent forensic psychological examination in cases of sexual violence in criminal proceedings in their country.
Key aspects to highlight: How they were able with their work, to influenced judicial decisions in December 2023 and September 2024.
Their outcome: Their efforts directly contributed to achieving justice in cases of sexual abuse, setting a precedent for fairer legal practices, by incorporating gender-competent forensic psychological evaluations, which altered case outcomes and ensured more rigorous legal processes.
The work of Jimena Gibertoni and Yamila Carballido has made a substantial impact on the legal system in Argentina, demonstrating the importance of incorporating a gender perspective in forensic psychological evaluations. Their dedication not only influenced key judicial decisions but also highlighted the need for rigorous, gender-competent practices in criminal proceedings involving sexual violence.
Throughout 2024, we held more than five meetings focused on the survivor-centric approach.
Our main objective was, and continues to be, the fight for gender justice, which remains critical as survivors of sexual and gender-based violence face systemic barriers in accessing justice.
At SAHR, we are committed to shifting the legal narrative by centering survivors' needs and dignity, supporting human rights defenders, and challenging discriminatory legal practices.
Through bold collaboration, we strive to end impunity for these crimes, improve access to justice, and empower marginalized communities worldwide. Together, we can build a future where survivors' voices are heard, and justice is truly served.
Read our insights about it, here: https://lnkd.in/db2HJW_6