PRESS RELEASE
The Embassy of France to Ethiopia and to the African Union is proud to announce the launching on Tuesday 13″ of June 2023 of a new program of 928,000 EUR called “JuDGE – Justice, Dialogue and Gender Equality in Ethiopia”
Built in collaboration with 4 Ethiopian NGOs in a context of recovery and reconstruction, the JUDGE program formalizes a new commitment from France to contribute to the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and discriminations.
Together with its partners from the national civil society (‘justice for All Ethiopia’, lead organization, Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association’, a recognized specialized organization working on legal advice, and two organizations specialized in GBV survivors’ care, N4ED’ and ‘EURIKA), France reaffirms its will to engage in favor of the rights of women and children.
With regards to GBV, the regulatory framework for the treatment of cases requires continuous improvement. The program, in its component 1, will work towards the upgrading of the legal procedures for the prosecution of sexual crimes, by developing a legal and protection system enabling the perpetrators of crimes to be rapidly charged. It will also seek to strengthen protocols for survivors’ care in conjunction with civil society organizations and the Ethiopian national and regional authorities. Enhancing national authorities and partners’ capacities to manage sexual violence committed against women and children, will improve the country’s response to gender-based violence.
Ethiopia is also engaged in a brand-new National Dialogue momentum in which the recognition of the role that women can play in the peace and national dialogue initiatives is at stake. In its component 2., program will support their participation, in particular at high-level positions, as mediators and peace-
builders, in accordance with the strategic orientations of the international Women Peace and Security agenda and the UN Security Council’s Resolution n’1325.
Gender equality is a key priority for France in both its foreign and internal policies. In Ethiopia, France has been standing along partners to fight violence against women and girls for the past three years, with the former 2021-2023 “Fight against GBV” program (850 000 EUR); and wishes to increase its efforts to promote gender equity, and participation of women at all stages of economic, social and political life, in each of its interventions.
