National Access to Justice Indaba for Women and Girls in Zimbabwe (29 April 2026)

On 29 April 2026, WLSA convened a National Access to Justice Indaba for Women and Girls in Harare under the theme “Access to Justice for Women and Girls in Zimbabwe.” The Indaba brought together a wide range of duty-bearers and stakeholders, including government ministries, the Judiciary, police, prosecutors, legal aid, traditional leaders, development partners, CSOs, disability organisations, academics, legal practitioners, and women with lived experience. Participants identified practical solutions to key barriers to justice and built consensus on five cross-cutting themes: the law-versus-practice gap, harmful gender stereotypes, weak GBV case handling, structural barriers to access, and disability-based exclusions. A highlight was the Community Lived-Experience Testimony Panel, where women shared concrete examples of how rights often fail in enforcement—covering issues such as property dispossession, digital exclusion, non-enforcement of maintenance orders, and compounded disadvantages faced by women with disabilities. The Indaba’s main tangible result was agreement on actor-specific, monitorable “Required Actions/Asks” for duty-bearers, focused on: strengthening enforcement and accountability; removing practical access barriers through decentralisation and inclusive digital justice; transforming institutional culture through trauma-informed, gender-transformative training; ensuring disability inclusion through accessible and disability-sensitive procedures; and securing sustained funding for shelters, one-stop centres, legal aid, interpretation, and survivor support services. With senior government leadership involved, WLSA then disseminated the Indaba report, launched structured follow-up on priority reforms, and integrated the findings into ongoing programming—shifting access to justice from discussion to a measurable accountability plan.