What does it mean to be survivor- centred?

General Recommendation 35 of the CEDAW Committee highlights that all measures to address GBV must be implemented with “an approach centred around the victim/survivor, acknowledging women as right holders and promoting their agency and autonomy, including the evolving capacity of girls, from childhood to adolescence. In addition, the measures should be designed and implemented with the participation of women, taking into account the particular situation of women affected by intersecting forms of discrimination.”38

A survivor-centred approach to justice is necessarily multi-faceted and subjective. In addition to centring on GBV survivors, key aspects of a survivor-centred approach to justice include:39

• Prioritizing women’s safety and security and guarding against backlash. Women and girls who are survivors of GBV face a multitude of risks to their personal safety and that of their children or other family and community members if they decide to seek justice for the violations they have suffered. Those who support GBV survivors are also at risk. This means that justice processes need to place women’s and their children’s need for safety at the centre of all decisions.

In complex situations, women often lack access to basic services for their safety, protection and recovery, such as emergency helplines, safe accommodation, shelter and psychosocial counselling.40 Therefore, entry points for engagements in complex situations should be informed by risk assessments, such as “safety audits”41 to mitigate unintended negative consequences and ensure that the safety of women is prioritized.

• Collaborating with and supporting women’s organizations, especially local ones, who are at the forefront of responding to GBV. Local organizations play an essential role in case management, supporting access to justice for GBV survivors and providing specialized services. Research has shown that a critical factor accounting for legal reforms and progressive policy changes has been the presence of feminist movements in domestic contexts.42

• Supporting women’s mobilization against GBV. Autonomous feminist movements have led advocacy campaigns and undertaken strategic litigation that have influenced legal developments at the national, regional and international levels.43 They have been effective in domesticating international and regional standards both in the framing and implementation of laws. Support to women’s organizations and feminist movements working to end GBV cannot be separated from efforts to create civil and political spaces for gender activism and mobilization against GBV.

• Building the GBV evidence base by rigorously collecting data on

GBV centred on women and their experience of GBV and accessing justice. This includes collection of data disaggregated along key dimensions (e.g. sex, age) and listening to women in all their diversity tell their own stories and experiences as well as increasing efforts to decolonize data collection by privileging knowledge from local practitioners, building local capacity of researchers and amplifying

voices of survivors.44 Advocacy, legal reform and justice programming should be informed and based on accurate data.

• Avoiding language that perpetuates the stigma associated with GBV.

The fear of stigma discourages GBV survivors from reporting instances of

GBV. Hence, capacity of local actors, first responders and justice and support service providers must be built to use appropriate terminology that does not either blame survivors or perpetuate stereotypes and norms related to so-called “honour”.45

• Accommodating and addressing intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalization. The CEDAW

Committee’s General Recommendation 33 recommends that “all justice systems must be adapted to the needs of women, including those subjected to intersectional or compounded discrimination”.46 Understanding how violence is perpetrated and experienced using an intersectional approach can help tailor contextspecific responses/initiatives that can reach the most vulnerable populations.