TUNISIA: EMPOWERING WOMEN TO ACCESS JUSTICE AND CLAIM THEIR RIGHTS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

IDLO QUARTERLY REPORT

Country

Programme Duration 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2020

Donor Government of the Netherlands

Programme Reference Number 4000002132

Programme Value EUR 700,000

Reporting Period 1 July – 30 September 2020

Submitted to the Department for Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands

11 January 2020

IDLO | International Development Law Organization Creating a Culture of Justice www.idlo.int TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1 II. PROGRAMME GOAL ...... 1 III. RESOURCES ...... 1 IV. PROGRESS AGAINST PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND OUTPUTS ...... 2 V. CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED...... 5 VI. CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD ...... 5

The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) is pleased to submit this Quarterly Report to the Department for Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in conjunction with the required IATI reporting for the programme “Empowering Women to Access Justice and Claim their Rights at the Local Level in Tunisia”, based on the agreement signed between the Department for Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and IDLO on 3 December 2018. I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Women in Tunisia continue to encounter barriers in accessing justice and many still lack awareness and knowledge of their rights. Social norms remain an obstacle to legal change, and discriminatory practices on the part of justice sector actors persist. Women, more often than men, tend to seek legal information from informal resources within their families. The lack of a legal framework to effectively address the legal empowerment of women remains a key hindrance to the advancement of women’s right to access justice in practice. Challenges in the administration of justice, such as lack of adequate competences and resources on part of justice sector actors, further compound these complex dynamics. Moreover, the practical application of the normative framework for legal assistance in Tunisia demonstrates the insufficiency of existing legal mechanisms.

Through this programme, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) is providing support to justice stakeholders in strengthening access to justice and legal services for women in the Tunisian governorates of and Kef. These governorates were selected during the inception phase of the programme.

The reporting period (July-September 2020) continued to be challenging for programme implementation because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the restrictive measures taken by the Tunisian Government to limit the spread of the virus. These measures, including restrictions on social gatherings, slowed down the pace of programme implementation. However, IDLO was able to make progress towards achieving programme outputs by organising two multi-sectoral coordination meetings in governorate on 21 July and 29 September 2020 to assess the challenges in delivering care services and providing assistance to women victims of violence at the local level. At the end of the reporting period, IDLO and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) co-launched a Training of Trainers (ToT) session for ten (10) Tunisian judges. The three-day ToT, which was launched on 30 September 2020, aimed to form a corps of trainers capable to – in turn – organise and deliver trainings to their peers on how to apply and comply with the Law on Eliminating Violence Against Women, No. 58 of 2017.

IDLO and its implementing partner Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) also continued to provide legal aid services for GBV survivors through the legal aid centres established under this programme.

II. PROGRAMME GOAL

Strengthen the access of women victims of violence to justice and to the assistance services made available to them by the various government structures.

III. RESOURCES

The total Programme budget is EUR 700,000. As at the end of the reporting period, EUR 372,159 have been spent.

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IV. PROGRESS AGAINST PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND OUTPUTS

OUTCOME 1: WOMEN ARE EMPOWERED TO ACCESS LEGAL SERVICES AND CLAIM THEIR RIGHTS IN TWO Output 1: Legal and policy dialogue on the existing system of access to justice and its impact on women advanced

Gather feedback on the results of the needs assessment on women’s access to justice at the local level

In 2019, IDLO conducted a needs assessment in cooperation with the Tunisian Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the High Judicial Council (HJC), the Ministry of Social Affairs (MSA) and other key partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Legal Foundation (ILF). The assessment aimed to identify and analyse access to justice gaps and challenges faced by women at the local level, and to propose viable recommendations for improvement.

During the reporting period, IDLO continued to present the findings of the needs assessment at two multi-sectoral coordination meetings aimed at stimulating dialogue at the local level to gather additional information on and recommendations to address access to justice gaps faced by GBV survivors.

The meetings were held on 21 July and 29 September 2020, at the premises of the Childhood Centre in . The meetings brought together 20 (16 women and 04 men) and 23 (19 women and 04 men) participants, respectively, including judges, psychologists from the MSA, officials of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Women, Family and Children’s Affairs, as well as representatives of civil society.

During both meetings, the participants discussed the challenges faced when dealing with cases requiring multi-sectoral intervention. Challenges include the speed of action and coordination issues caused by the involvement of different actors at the same time and the need to provide immediate and unified reaction, especially in urgent cases. Participants also monitored the testing of the safety assessment tool, a tool created by stakeholders to unify and coordinate the response process and procedures, and measured its impact on the work of all parties concerned. Furthermore, participants identified key recommendations and next steps to improve the capacity of the Judiciary to better deal with GBV cases. Finally, the participants discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictive measures adopted by the Tunisian Government in light of the fact that the lockdown measures have dramatically increased cases of GBV in the country and made the stakeholders’ intervention very difficult.

It is worth noting that the first meeting was covered by Tunisian media, including online and printed newspapers, thus sharing the results of the discussions with the general public in Tunisia.1 Feedback gathered during meetings continued to inform IDLO proposals for a more responsive and advanced legal aid system, including tools and mechanisms that can assist relevant judicial institutions and local administrations in the two target governorates to deliver better legal aid services and improve coordination between all relevant parties.

1https://www.tap.info.tn/ar/%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AA- %D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AA-Portal-Regions/12901780-%D8%A8%D9%86- %D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9 2

Output 2: Integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates of Tunisia

Develop an integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates of Tunisia

The COVID-19 pandemic affected implementation of activities under this output, given the restrictive measures put in place by the Tunisian Government banning all social gatherings. Yet, despite the lockdown and the impossibility to organise legal consultations at the programme partners’ locations IDLO and its implementing partner ASF continued to provide support to programme beneficiaries in compliance with Government restrictive measures. In the past quarter, IDLO and ASF developed a new implementation approach, which entailed providing legal consultations and support via telephone.2 This new mechanism was advertised on the national radio station (Radio Nationale Tunisienne), through Facebook,3 and found a large popularity as these were much needed in light of the increased number of domestic abuse against women due to measures of confinement and the challenges to provide these services in situ.

During the reporting period, in-person consultations provided by programme partners – mainly civil society organisations – resumed. As at today, the programme provided a total of 83 legal consultations (in-person and remotely), benefitting 215 persons.

Partners Number of beneficiaries (July-September 2020) Beity 46 Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (Association 15 Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates - ATFD) Centre de défense et d'intégration sociale (CDIS) Soukra 11 CDIS Ben Arous 43 CDIS 24 AMAL 7 Direction de protection sociale (DPS) Tunis 1 6 DPS Tunis 2 1 Remote legal consultation 1 TOTAL 154

Moreover, in addition to the legal consultations provided, the programme also offered legal aid support to vulnerable women in 59 cases through court representation.

Partners Number of legal aid cases (July-September 2020) Beity 10 ATFD 10 CDIS 5 CDIS Ben Arous 17 CDIS Douar Hicher 10 Amal 1 DPS Tunis 1 4 DPS Tunis 2 1 Remote support 1 TOTAL 59

2 The mechanism was adopted by the toll-free hotline 1899 affiliated to the Ministry of Women, Family and Children’s Affairs, tasked with orienting women to the adequate services and support structures. With the support of the programme, the service has become available on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis. 3 https://www.facebook.com/radionationaleTun/videos/911876022595789 3

Strengthen the capacity of justice sector actors to ensure access to justice for women victims of GBV

In accordance with the original programme document, IDLO was expected to implement a number of workshops aimed to strengthen the capacity of justice sector actors to ensure access to justice for women victims of violence. However, as mentioned in the previous quarterly report, the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Tunisian Government affected programme implementation as IDLO was unable to organise and deliver the remaining workshops in Tunis and Hammamet. Only two workshops were delivered in Kef on 6 and 7 March 2020.

Despite the challenges, on 30 September 2020, IDLO and OHCHR launched a three-day Training of Trainers (ToT) session for ten (10) Tunisian judges (seven women and three men). The objective of the ToT, which lasted on 02 October 2020, was to strengthen the participants’ capacity to organise and deliver trainings to their peers on the application of the Law on Eliminating Violence Against Women (No. 58 of 2017). More information on the ToT will be provided in the next quarterly report.

Output 3: Mechanisms to promote better access to socio-economic rights for women survivors of GBV in two governorates developed

Support policy dialogue on improving the legal, policy and regulatory framework on access to support services for women survivors of GBV in the Programme locations

As previously mentioned, the programme aims to facilitate dialogue between actors working on the socio- economic integration of GBV survivors to empower women to rebuild their lives after traumatic incidents or incidents of violence. The focus of the dialogues is on identifying measures to support the empowerment and economic independence of women victims of violence and determining the actors that can contribute to the financial security of survivors, in particular their economic independence from the perpetrator.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, impeded implementation of this activity during the reporting period.

Set up a support network to facilitate the economic participation of women survivors of GBV

The programme is supporting the establishment of a multi-agency support network to facilitate the economic participation of women survivors of GBV in the two target governorates. This will be implemented in cooperation with women CSOs, employment agencies and the private sector, to be identified during the stakeholder analysis. The network is designed as a mechanism to facilitate dialogue between these stakeholders and to increase access to jobs and other economic opportunities for women survivors of GBV. It is estimated that 80 women per governorate will benefit from the support of the network.

As already mentioned in the previous reports, the establishment of this network is still ongoing. IDLO continues to coordinate with the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Family and Children, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and other local stakeholders, and so far 80 potential women beneficiaries from Kef and 60 from Tunis have been identified.

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Output 4: Women’s knowledge of their rights and available access to justice mechanisms at the local level increased

Develop and carry out awareness-raising activities for women in two governorates

The awareness-raising activities were planned for the first Quarter of 2020. However, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been postponed to a later stage.

Pilot community scorecards in specific justice facilities in two governorates

The piloting of community scorecards and delivery of capacity building activities were planned to commence during the reporting period; however, implementation was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities have, therefore, been postponed to a later stage.

V. CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

The impact of COVID-19 on programme implementation:

During the reporting period, Tunisia went through the second wave of the pandemic. Following the opening of the borders, the pandemic spread began and the number of people infected increased tenfold in Tunisia, which entailed very restrictive measures taken by the Tunisian Government to face the health crisis. These measures - which include banning social gatherings - greatly affected the programme resulting in delays in the implementation of activities and the achievement of programme objectives. However, a lesson learned from programme implementation under these difficult circumstances was the need to adopt a flexible implementation approach to adapt to the current situation, especially to the significant spike in GBV cases during the pandemic.

With this approach in mind, on 25 September 2020, IDLO submitted a six-month no-cost extension request to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tunis, to extend the programme duration through to 30 June 2021. This additional time would allow (i) redesign of a number of activities to shift to online implementation modalities, and (ii) finalisation of all planned programme activities despite the pandemic restrictions.

VI. CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s heavy impact on programme implementation, IDLO was able to implement relevant activities and adapt its mode of delivery to a considerable extent. IDLO held two multi-sectoral coordination meetings with relevant stakeholders to analyse access to justice gaps faced by women and provide recommendations to improve the pilot legal aid scheme. IDLO also co-launched a ToT session in partnership with OHCHR to improve Tunisian judges’ capacity to themselves deliver trainings to their peers, thus ensuring sustainability of programme efforts.

Most importantly, IDLO and its implementing partner ASF continued to provide legal consultations and representation services to victims of violence, in a time when the number of domestic abuses has dramatically increased due to the COVID-19 imposed confinement.

In the next quarter, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Women, Family and Children’s Affairs, and pending the Donor approval of the no-cost extension request, IDLO plans to implement the following activities:

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. Finalise the ToT on the Law on Eliminating Violence Against Women co-delivered with OHCHR; . Resume efforts to establish the support network aimed at facilitating the economic participation of women survivors of GBV; . Start discussions with main stakeholders on the development and implementation of awareness- raising activities for women in the two programme governorates; and . Draft the terms of reference and identify partners and participants for the implementation of the pilot community scorecards in specific justice facilities in the two programme governorates.

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TUNISIA: EMPOWERING WOMEN TO ACCESS JUSTICE AND CLAIM THEIR RIGHTS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

IATI PROGRAMME RESULTS JANUARY 2019 - SEPTEMBER 2020

Result 1: Integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates piloted Type 1 – Output Aggregation No status Title Integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates of Tunisia Indicator Number of women survivors/victims of GBV benefiting from developed legal aid scheme Baseline 0 Period January 2019 –September 2020 Target A total of 150 women in the Tunis governorate benefitting from legal aid services Actual 185 Result 2: Capacity of justice sector actors, local governments staff and representatives of CSOs to apply the requirements of the newly developed legal aid system increased Type 1 – Output Aggregation No status Title Integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates of Tunisia Indicator Number of legal professionals trained on legal aid Baseline 0 Period January 2019 – September 2020 Target 70 legal professionals trained (35 per governorate) Actual 82 legal professionals trained in the governorates of Kef and Tunis Result 3: Capacity of professionals to ensure access to justice for women victims of violence increased Type 1 – Output Aggregation No status Title Integrated legal aid scheme for women in two governorates of Tunisia Indicator Number of legal professionals trained on access to justice for women victims of GBV Baseline 0 Period January 2019 – September 2020 Target 240 legal professionals (an estimated 120 per governorate) trained Actual 60 legal professionals trained in the governorate of Kef