November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, first celebrated in 1981 and officially recognized by the United Nations in 2000. The day serves as an opportunity for governments, international organizations, and civil society groups to raise public awareness and mobilize support for policy and other interventions. November 25 also marks the first day of 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence, a global campaign that runs until December 10, Human Rights Day, to highlight that women’s rights are human rights.

Since its launch in 2005, Politics & Gender has published a large number of articles on violence against women and gender-based violence. This virtual special issue collects together those focusing on the role of the law in combating this problem. Drawing on a wide range of country examples, the authors explore various constraints and opportunities in using legal interventions to address violence against women and gender-based violence.

The first group of articles maps the role of women’s movements in pressing for these reforms. Erin Beck notes that achieving a series of incremental policy gains addressing violence against women enabled nascent women’s movements in Guatemala to gain strength and autonomy over time. Juliana Restrepo Sanín and Celeste Montoya identify ways in which women’s movements have worked together with international actors to advance policy responses to violence against women. Janet Elise Johnson argues that these dynamics may be different in authoritarian states, where elite conflict and selective signaling may drive policy reforms rather than domestic mobilization.

A second set of articles explores the limits of legislative change. Conny Roggeband points out that while governments across Latin America have widely ratified a regional convention on violence against women, change at the state level has been slow. Looking at the particular case of laws to combat violence against women in politics, Juliana Restrepo Sanín finds that governments in Latin America have passed laws but have largely failed to implement them. Adopting a more critical lens towards international actors, Sahla Aroussi highlights how international attention to sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo has tended to overlook other forms of gendered harm, delivering neither justice nor security to victims. Liana Georgieva Minkova reveals the limits of gender justice in the International Criminal Court, where perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes have largely been acquitted.

The third group of articles delves more deeply into implementation dynamics. Nana Akua Anyidoho, Gordon Crawford, and Peace A. Medie illustrate the importance of women’s movement coalitions in ensuring implementation of bills on gender-based violence. Peace A. Medie and Shannon Drysdale Walsh explore how women’s groups and international organizations have collaborated to influence police practices in Liberia and Nicaragua. Peace Medie describes the special women and children protection section of the national police in Liberia, while Francesca Gains and Vivien Lowndes observe how a new cadre of directed elected police and crime commissioners in England used new rules to prioritize responses to violence against women and girls. Awareness that victims have been treated unfairly by the police, Helen Rabello Kras finds in the case of Brazil, leads to more critical evaluations of these laws and the government’s performance.

Please enjoy free access to all articles below until the end of 2023.

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