Access to justice in fragile contexts: lessons from Iraq for CSW70

The Commission on the Status of Women and WPS Imperative

The 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) takes place at a decisive moment.

Its priority theme—ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls—and its review theme on women’s full and effective participation in public life and the elimination of violence, speak directly to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its four pillars of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda:

1. Protection
2. Participation
3. Prevention
4. Relief and recovery

Women’s access to justice in fragile contexts is constrained not only by formal legal barriers, but also by insecurity, displacement, weakened service systems, and entrenched gender norms.

Justice in fragile contexts: beyond courts and codes

World Vision ’s work in Iraq provides practical insight into how integrated Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus programming can operationalize WPS commitments.

• Understanding nexus programming: Discover how World Vision Canada uses the triple nexus approach to programming in fragile contexts.

Through the Nexus Accelerator Fund and the Resilience and Recovery Pathways for Iraq consortium, more than 334,000 people across Ninewa and Thiqar were reached through coordinated humanitarian relief, climate resilience, livelihoods, and peacebuilding interventions.

This integrated model offers three lessons for the 70th session of CSW (CSW70):

1. Protection and legitimacy: local systems as justice anchors

Access to justice requires functioning and trusted local systems.

When international NGOs faced temporary suspension between November 2024 and February 2025, local partners stepped in and ensured continuity of services.

Women’s access to services, accountability mechanisms, and safe spaces cannot depend solely on international presence. Local civil society actors, youth committees, and community leaders are guarantors of continuity and legitimacy.

Investing in local actors strengthens prevention of violence and reinforces women’s access to support systems even during political or security shock.

• The lesson: Sustainable justice therefore requires localized capacity, shared decision making, and institutional trust building.

2. Participation and prevention: youth as climate and peace actors

Peacebuilding is inseparable from gender justice.

Youth-led initiatives under the programme linked climate action to social cohesion, fostering safer public spaces and dialogue platforms. Initiatives included:

• Environmental campaigns
• Public art interventions
• Anticipatory action protocols

Combined, these efforts reduced tensions and strengthened intergroup trust.

Within the WPS framework, this represents prevention in action. By addressing environmental stressors and social fragmentation, programmes reduce drivers of instability that restrict women’s mobility and voice.

When young women and men are recognized as contributors to community resilience, perceptions shift. They move from being viewed as passive beneficiaries to being recognized as peace actors.

• The lesson: Participation is not symbolic inclusion. It is structured leadership in governance, climate adaptation, and conflict sensitive programming. Where youth influence decision making, the foundations for nonviolent conflict resolution and inclusive public life grow stronger.

• Climate justice through action: Learn how, through Every Girl Can, women and girls are tackling climate change in their own communities.

3. Institutional reform and accountability: governance with community trust

Institutional reform must be paired with community ownership.

For example in Iraq, World Vision supported digital water monitoring systems embedded within public institutions shifted governance from reactive to evidence-based decision making, benefiting 150,000 people.

When public systems are transparent, data driven, and accountable, citizens including women and girls are more likely to trust and engage with them.

• The lesson: Technical innovation, when anchored in local capacity and participation, strengthens both service delivery and governance legitimacy.

What this means for CSW70

CSW70 reinforces that access to justice and women’s participation cannot be pursued through standalone legal reform alone.

In fragile contexts, justice must be embedded within integrated Nexus approaches that:

• Strengthen local partnership ecosystems and women led civil society
• Address climate and conflict drivers that heighten gendered risks
• Position youth, especially young women, as leaders in prevention and peacebuilding
• Integrate institutional accountability with community level participation

The WPS agenda reminds us that:

• Protection, participation, prevention, and recovery are interconnected
• Eliminating violence requires not only services but transforms power relations
• Ensuring participation requires not only representation but safe and cohesive communities
• Strengthening justice requires not only laws but institutions that endure crisis

As CSW70 advances global commitments, justice for women and girls is a peace dividend.

It is not only about access to courts. It is about systems that hold under pressure, communities that prevent violence before it erupts, and institutions that protect rights even in times of fragility.