Improving Maya Women’s Access to Justice in Rural Guatemala

Community leaders can be important gate keepers for justice services. Community leaders often decide whether a case of VAWG should be reported to authorities outside the community, can be perpetrators of VAWG themselves, and yield high levels of influence in community perceptions of violence tolerance. These leaders need to be engaged meaningfully and strategically so that they, at a minimum, do not block justice processes.

Survivors of gender-based violence need integrated support services throughout the process to seek justice. This often involves land titles, housing, childcare, income generation, and psychosocial support services. Established relationships with organizations that can offer these services will help women to access integrated support that they need.

There is a strong demand for legal support services, which only increases by offering this service. Projects must anticipate this growing demand and establish the mechanism to respond while also strengthening interinstitutional efforts to continuously provide these services.

Community advocates have the potential to be a powerful support network for supporting community awareness, navigating victims to justice services, and play a role in restorative justice processes as a survivor rights group. To optimize this potential, community advocates need institutional backing, continual skills training, linkages to institutional networks, and community recognition.

Risk assessments can include a do no harm analysis: The implementing agency had a risk assessment which identified potential risks to not achieving project targets. A risk assessment could also be expanded to identify potential risks to participants for their participation in the project. These risks can be identified initially and then continuously monitored throughout project implementation through feedback mechanisms and special studies.

Strategies should be embedded in the project design to foster linkages wherever possible between key actors and participants in the project. This could mean co-creation, networking, and/or joint activities between community-level promoters, local leadership, and institutional networks that strengthen their capacity and motivation for a desired behavior change.