Gigi Scoles and Anupama Selvam 13 IV. Effectiveness of the Justice Institute Model Effective trainings take a multi-disciplinary approach.40 They also feature high quality content delivered by skilled trainers, are supported by high-level officials, and are followed with changes to policy and procedure.41 As described above, Vital Voices ensures that Justice Institutes include people from various professions (e.g. law enforcement, prosecutors, and social workers), and employ different teaching techniques (e.g. role play, multimedia, discussion) to ensure that the Institute Model is multi-disciplinary. It also ensures that trainers are highly-skilled, there is support from local government, and that each Justice Institute encourages sustained participation that will lead to future policy and procedural change. When evaluating the effectiveness of the Justice Institute Model, a recent study shows that participants increased their knowledge and understanding of the underlying dynamics of gen­ der-based violence along with increasing their preparedness to take action to combat various types of gender-based violence.42 By increasing participants’ knowledge and understanding of under­ lying dynamics of gender-based violence, the Justice Institute helps address social and cultural stereotyping43 that surround these issues. These biases, when carried by State actors such as law enforcement or prosecutors, can discourage victims from reporting, thereby blocking their access to legal remedy and justice.44 Furthermore, the perpetuation of these biases within government institutions prevents States from providing adequate reparations to victims because these biases often affect judicial decision-making.45 Increasing participants’ preparedness to take action to combat various types of gender-based violence includes building knowledge about what techniques can be used to acquire better evidence for investigation, as well as knowledge of what laws are available to prosecute. This facilitates a faster response to gender-based violence, by providing first responders, like law enforcement, with the knowledge to quickly identify the signs of gender-based violence—allowing to interview victims at the earliest time possible. These techniques also give law enforcement and prosecutors the specific questions and emotional skills to interview survivors in a sensitive manner, which allows for more reliable evidence to be collected. Faster response times com­ 40 See Sarah Bott, M. Ellsberg, & Andrew Morrision, Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries: A global review and analysis (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3618, 2005), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/852691468140377416/pdf/wps3618.pdf. 41 See id. 42 See Jennifer M. Guzman, Evaluation of Vital Voices’ Institute Model, (2015) (unpublished Masters’ Thesis, Univ. of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service) (on file with author) (though this study is not a full impactanalysis, it demonstrates the development experienced by participants of the Justice Institute.) 43 Rep. of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Eliminating judicial stereotyping: Equal access to justice for women in gender-based violence cases, June 9, 2014 (discussing the wide-ranging consequences that gender-based stereotyping can have in distorting perception of the facts, affecting vision of who is a ‘victim’ or ‘perpetrator,’ and influencing views about witness credibility); see also Karen Tayag Vertido v. The Philippines, ¶ 10, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/46/D/18/2008 (22 Sept. 2010) (finding that the reasoning of the trial judge relied on implicit assumptions about men/masculinities, concluding that the acquittal of the accused—a man in his sixties—had also been influenced by the stereotype that older men lack sexual prowess, the assumption being that they are not capable of rape); see generally Rebecca J. Cook and Simone Cusack, Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) (detailing various categories of gender-based stereotyping that has impacted transnational legal systems and the way that victims are understood and how their cases are adjudicated). 44 See generally Rep. of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Gender Stereotyping as a Human Rights Violation, Oct. 2013. 45 See generally Rep. of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Eliminating judicial stereotyping: Equal access to justice for women in gender-based violence cases, June 9, 2014.