[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1135, 393], "category": "Text", "text": "for Guinea-Bissau's development. Moreover, it acknowledges that CSO participation is crucial to foster equality and social cohesion, but also to act as supervisory entities, hold decision-makers accountable, and promote democratic values, the rule of law and fundamental rights. In this line and regarding gender equality, the Guinea-Bissau CLIP also stresses the importance of engaging with CSOs in the wider sense, including youth organisations and traditional religious leaders committing to ensure that, for example, gender equality is mainstreamed in all programmes and discussions. The Action will count with the involvement of CSOs under output 1.3 to facilitate the relationship between police forces and communities to strengthen trust and partnership amongst them and under output 2.3 to support the State in the provision of justice and social services to victims of sexual and gender-based violence and trafficking in human beings."}, {"bbox": [96, 403, 1135, 591], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU supported the justice and security sectors in the past and has developed a strategic partnership with Guinea-Bissau in the governance area through regional and thematic programmes on organised crime, access to justice for the most vulnerable, human rights, digitalisation of the public administration and Ianda Guiné Djuntu on civil society. The Action is in line with the renewed EU-Africa partnership, which promotes enhanced cooperation for peace and security. It also contributes to the Global Gateway, by promoting a safer environment for investment. Moreover, it will also contribute to the implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan III, notably its key thematic priorities \"Freedom from all forms of gender-based violence\"."}, {"bbox": [126, 617, 382, 649], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 675, 318, 703], "category": "Text", "text": "### Short problem analysis:"}, {"bbox": [96, 713, 1135, 1113], "category": "Text", "text": "The Diagnosis on the Justice state and challenges in Guinea-Bissau (2022)¹² identifies some major issues in the sector. In particular, the main challenges at institutional level are the existence of an outdated normative framework, inherited from the colonial period, the lack of monitoring mechanisms of all actors and the outlined policies and the persistent challenges in the separation of powers and the subsequent interference risk. In terms of service provision, the study mentions the chronic insufficiency of infrastructures to support the judicial system in particular in the rural areas, with a limited access of the population to infrastructures and services of justice, and the almost non-existent penitentiary system. Moreover, judicial operators show weak capacity to understand the real problems of justice; there is widespread endemic and systemic corruption in the country; lack of knowledgeable human resources, as well as reliable databases, which could facilitate the management of processes, directly influencing their fluidity and speed, contributing to the increase in impunity. Also, even if the country's legal framework has experienced significant improvements - mainly through laws criminalizing Female Genital Mutilation (2011) or Domestic Violence (2014) - these laws are waiting for application. Indeed, there is a lack of resources for dissemination and a poorly operational justice system. Moreover, the meshing between customary law and modern state laws, and the lack of access to justice, constitute serious barriers for the realization of women's rights."}, {"bbox": [96, 1124, 1135, 1258], "category": "Text", "text": "Since the State and its institutions are not fully present across the country, the population must resort to other actors to solve conflicts and quarrels. In this sense, the customary authorities, such as traditional and religious leaders, still play a crucial role in the delivery of justice in Guinea-Bissau. However, the application of this customary law leads sometimes to discrimination (particularly towards women and children) and, in some cases, is in contradiction with international human rights standards and national law."}, {"bbox": [96, 1269, 1135, 1510], "category": "Text", "text": "The Bissau-Guinean State with the support of the UNDP has therefore proceeded with the creation of the Centres of Access to Justice (CAJ) to ensure that the population could more easily resort to the state authorities and the national law to resolve their issues. The CAJ offers legal aid and promote conflict resolution through mediation and counselling. In partnership with CSOs and development partners, it has designed and held awareness raising campaigns on human rights, access to justice and dispute resolution across the country to draw people to use their legal aid services. More recently the CAJ has also been trained to offer alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms to the population - being the most common negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and private judging. Nevertheless, these are still not fully in place and still require sensitization and training for its application."}, {"bbox": [85, 1596, 1144, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² Relatório Diagnóstico da Justiça – DJ2021: Diagnóstico sobre o Estado e desafios da Justiça na Guiné-Bissau; UNDP e Ministério da Justiça e Direitos Humanos."}, {"bbox": [1037, 1681, 1144, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 33"}]