Justice and Human Rights Fiji Project #20290

Justice for Pacific & Caribbean Women & Girls

by International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD)

Justice for Pacific & Caribbean Women & Girls

Project Report | Dec 21, 2025
From Data to Decision: TrackGBV in the Courts

By Jaspreet Singh | Co-Founder & Advocacy Strategist, ICAAD

ICAAD TrackGBV Training in Solomon Islands

Recently, we came across one of the clearest examples of how TrackGBV is influencing judicial decision-making in practice.

In judicial trainings led by ICAAD Director and Change Facilitator Erin Thomas—including sessions with members of the Tongan judiciary and the former Chief Justice of Tonga—TrackGBV data and analysis were used to examine how gender-based violence cases are handled by the courts. These trainings focused on supporting judges to apply empirical data when identifying risk factors, weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and centering survivor protection within sentencing decisions.

In a Supreme Court sentencing decision, a Tongan Supreme Court justice explicitly acknowledged this work at the outset of the judgment, stating:

“The recommendations in the report on Gender Based Violence have been reviewed and considered in passing this sentence including the need to anonymise those made victims of gender based violence.” ICAAD Human Rights Innovation, TrackGBV: Pacific Regional Analysis and Tonga Country Report

What is particularly significant is how the judgment proceeds from that point. The decision carefully walks through each stage of sentencing, identifying aggravating and mitigating factors and explicitly recognising the offence as gender-based violence and domestic abuse. The court highlights survivor vulnerability, breach of trust by an intimate partner, the sustained nature of the attack, prior offending, and the risk of reoffending—factors that closely align with the analytical framework and recommendations set out in the TrackGBV report.

The judgment also rejects victim-blaming narratives raised during the pre-sentencing process and places clear emphasis on accountability, denunciation of gender-based violence, and the need for sentences that reflect both harm and systemic risk. Ultimately, the court declined to suspend any portion of the sentence, underscoring the seriousness with which it viewed the offence.

For ICAAD, this decision represents a powerful validation of TrackGBV’s approach. It demonstrates how rigorous data analysis, paired with sustained judicial engagement, can shape how courts understand gender-based violence—not only in terms of language and procedure, but in the substantive reasoning that determines outcomes.

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Tongan Supreme Court Decision citing ICAAD

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Sep 3, 2025
UPR: Holding Jamaica Accountable

By Hansdeep Singh | Co-Founder

As Jamaica undergoes its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council, a coalition of civil society organizations—ICAAD, Stand Up for Jamaica (SUFJ), Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), and the Jamaica Environmental Trust (JET)—has raised urgent concerns about the country’s ongoing human rights challenges.

Despite past commitments, Jamaica continues to struggle with gender-based violence (GBV), inadequate access to justice, inhumane treatment of mentally ill individuals in custody, shrinking civic space, corruption, and environmental degradation.

Key findings include:

Rampant GBV persists due to outdated laws, poor enforcement, and widespread underreporting. Survivors face secondary victimization and limited access to justice, particularly LGBTQ+ individuals.
Mentally ill detainees continue to languish in indefinite detention without trial or treatment—some for decades—due to a lack of forensic psychiatric facilities.
Civil society actors and anti-corruption institutions are under political pressure, while whistleblower protections remain weak.
Environmental governance is compromised by lack of transparency, weak public participation, and poor enforcement—even in protected areas.

The coalition has outlined concrete recommendations, including repealing colonial-era laws, amending the constitution to protect against gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination, investing in mental health and legal aid systems, and ratifying the Escazú Agreement to safeguard environmental defenders.

Jamaica’s UPR is not just a bureaucratic process—it’s a crucial moment to push for transformative, rights-based reform. The time for action is now.

Read the full submission to the 50th session of the UPR working group below:

Links:

UPR Report for Jamaica

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May 12, 2025
Groundbreaking Reports Expose Justice Gaps for GBV

By Jaspreet Singh | Co-Founder

The reports bring to light the hidden challenges faced by GBV survivors in Jamaica and Grenada in seeking justice, highlighting the necessity for advocacy to close these critical gaps.

ICAAD released two critical reports that illuminate how inefficiencies in governmental systems combined with gender bias create a network of barriers that survivors of GBV in Jamaica and Grenada must navigate. These survivor-centered reports, based on systems-focused research techniques like journey mapping, offer a rare, in-depth look at how colonial-era laws and discriminatory policies create obstacles for those seeking justice. ICAAD’s findings reveal a hidden crisis in justice sector service delivery in the Caribbean, where outdated policies and systemic barriers impede even basic protections for survivors – especially LGBTQ+ individuals and people with disabilities.

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Launching this research during the 16 Days of Activism, ICAAD joins a global call to action for governments, civil society, and communities to take a stand against GBV. This is not only an issue of justice but of survival, ICAAD argues: outdated, discriminatory laws are endangering lives and pushing marginalized people further into the shadows.

ICAAD’s findings are more than research; they are a rallying cry to challenge entrenched injustices and work toward a system where every survivor has a path to safety and justice.

Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Lived Realities
The reports reveal the critical gap between justice sector standards and the real-world experiences of GBV survivors in Jamaica and Grenada. While judicial systems are in place to protect survivors, policy gaps and systemic inequities prevent effective access to justice.

Colonial Legacy and Gender-Based Violence
Both reports underscore how colonial legacies and patriarchal legal systems continue to impact justice for GBV survivors. Colonial-era laws, structural inequalities, and policy like Jamaica’s “savings clause” persist, limiting legal redress and entrenching discriminatory practices against marginalized groups.

Insights from Survivors to Improve Access to Justice
Through survivor-centered research and journey mapping, ICAAD has documented the complex, multi-institutional journeys of survivors seeking justice. The approach highlights the urgency of system reforms based on lived experiences to create pathways for accessible, inclusive justice.

CSOs as Essential Connectors
Civil society organizations (CSOs) are shown to be essential bridges, offering crucial support and guidance for survivors navigating justice systems. CSOs like GrenCHAP play a critical role in aiding underrepresented groups, including the LGBTQ+ community, who face additional barriers due to criminalized behavior and systemic discrimination.

Urgency for Policy Reform and Full Legislative Protection
The findings call for immediate policy reform, including eliminating outdated laws and adopting comprehensive protections, particularly for groups disproportionately affected by violence. Examples include the need for legal recognition of sexual harassment in Grenada and compensation for victims of physical harm in Jamaica.

Innovative Approaches to Understanding Justice Systems
By integrating user-centered methods such as journey mapping, ICAAD’s reports illustrate a model for understanding justice systems from the survivors’ perspectives. This innovative approach allows for holistic insights and provides a framework that can be replicated in other regions.

Calls to Action

Share and use the findings and recommendations in these reports in your advocacy efforts to advance access to justice in Jamaica and Grenada.
Partner with us to advance research methodologies that foreground the lived experiences of marginalized communities, applying a systems approach to drive real-world impact and support survivors’ rights.

Your support is critical to continue data-driven research, build local capacity, and develop innovative approaches—such as design thinking and journey mapping—that place survivors’ experiences at the center of justice sector reform. Join us in creating sustainable change and fostering equity in the justice systems of Jamaica, Grenada, and beyond.

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