Centre for Women's Justice

Who we are

Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) is a thriving and rapidly expanding legal charity which has undertaken a wide range of highly publicised strategic legal challenges and collaborative projects through partnerships with women’s sector organisations. 

Our Mission: To hold the state to account to challenge discrimination in the justice system around male violence against women and girls. 

Our areas of work include: 

• Strategic litigation – we bring legal challenges which have the potential to effect broader changes in society 
• Training and empowering frontline women’s sector organisations – we improve confidence and legal knowledge of those working directly with survivors of male violence 
• Facilitating access to justice – working collaboratively with women’s sector organisations and lawyers with expertise in violence against women
• Monitoring and challenging trends in policy, practice and men’s use of the law as it impacts on violence against women and girls. 
• Raising awareness – we have fast become the go-to organisation for advice and media comment on legal issues around male violence 

Our culture and values

We believe that: 

• All women have an equal right to access justice and to be safe 
• Male violence is not inevitable: it can be eradicated 
• Women resist male violence but are blamed for it 
• All women and girls can be subject to male violence regardless of their socio-economic and cultural position 
• Male violence may take different forms in different contexts, so opportunities for resistance may differ 

Key principles underlying our approach: 

• Work with the client not for the client, by listening and responding to each woman’s individual experience 
• Work collaboratively with frontline organisations and campaigns 
• A commitment to anti-oppression politics