Educating Lawyers for Gender Justice and Racial Equality: Setting an Agenda for Audit and Action

AuthorOmoyemen Lucia Odigie-Emmanuel
Published date01 August 2014
Date01 August 2014
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/2277401720140104
Subject MatterArticle
EDUCATING LAWYERS FOR GENDER
JUSTICE AND RACIAL EQUALITY: SETTING
AN AGENDA FOR AUDIT AND ACTION
Omoyemen Lucia Odigie- Emmanuel*
This article takes as its central puzzle the continued prevalence of
gender and racial discrimination and inequality despite a long
history of efforts, both domestic and international, to combat such
forms of injustice. It argues that this phenomenon is explained by
the fact that such inequalities arise due to stereotypes and learned
values that are deeply entrenched within individual psyche through
a process of socialization from childhood onwards. Laws, however
well-intentioned and transformative in nature, have to be
administered by persons who are embedded within the social
constructs and stereotypes that give rise to the inequality in the first
place.Therefore, in order to harness law's transformative potential
and thus to combat social injustices, legal education has to be
oriented towards value education that is predicated upon
principles of equality and non-discrimination. The article explores
potential components and possible trajectories of a justice-
oriented legal pedagogy.
I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 67
II. CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS ................................................................ 68
III. WHY MAINSTREAM GENDER IN LEGAL EDUCATION AND
THE JUSTICE SECTOR?............................................................................... 71
IV. THE ROLE OF LAW SCHOOLS IN CONTROLLING GENDER AND
RACIAL INEQUALITIES .............................................................................. 75
V. TEACHING GENDER EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION
AS VALUES IN LAW SCHOOL PROGRAMMES .............................................. 76
V. CONCLUSION AND AGENDA FOR ACTION ................................................... 83
* Lecturer, Nigerian Law School.
I. INTRODUCTION
Despite a long history of international frameworks for promoting
equality, non-discrimination and gender justice, issues of gender and racial
inequalities, discrimination and injustices abound globally. Gender and
racial inequality are shaped by stereotypes (the mental picture, image,
opinion, attitude, judgment and belief that people have of men, women and
people of other races which forms the basis of their bias) and learned values.
1
These inequalities are evident in high rates of gender based violence,
discriminatory attitude towards female victims and persons of other racial
origin, absence of gender perspectives in curriculum development and legal
training, acceptance of gender and racial bias, hate crimes, and
discriminatory socio-cultural patterns which persist because of lack
attention to their root cause: the underlying stereotypes.
Law has been recognized as a means of controlling gender and racial
discriminations and promoting a just outcome. Several international and
domestic legal instruments have emerged that aim to change social attitudes
2
by specifying socially unacceptable attitudes. However, issues of gender
and racial discrimination still persist because the successful and impactful
interpretation and application of even the most specific gender and racial
sensitive instrument depends on actors at all stages of the justice system
including lawyers and judicial officers. In sum, gender stereotypes and
learned values shape not just relations between men and women but also
responses to issues of gender and racial bias, discrimination and
inequalities.
1 Gender based violence is different from other types of violence because it is rooted in
prescribed behaviours, norms and attitudes based upon gender and sexuality. It is rooted in
the construction of masculinity and femininity and how men and women are positioned vis-
a-vis one another and other groups of men and women. These gender discourses allow for
and encourage violent behavior within a context of assumed privileged and hierarchal power
of certain groups of men. A World Health Organization study of 24,000 women in 10
countries found that the prevalence of violence by a partner varied from 15 percent in urban
Japan to 71 percent in rural Ethiopia, with most areas being in the 30–60 percent range.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, MULTI COUNTRY STUDY ON WOMEN'S HEALTH AND
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (2005). See also UNICEF Innocenti Research
Centre, Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls, 6 INNOCENTI DIGEST (2000),
available at http://www.unicef-irc.org/publicat ions/pdf/digest6e.pdf (describing the
prevalence and causes of domestic violence across the globe).
2 See, e.g., infra note 27.
67
2014] Educating Lawyers for Gender Justice

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