36 Gender and Security Toolkit 4.7 Establishing and strengthening gender-focused organizational structures Gender-focused organizational structures – gender offices, task forces, desks, departments or units – can catalyse efforts to advance gender equality and gender responsiveness within the justice sector. There are a number of examples of such gender units established within ministries with a justice portfolio, some with a remit for a broad range of gender-related issues and some for a specific issue. In 2018 the Ministry of Justice in The Gambia established a unit to assess what can be done to address GBV and better respond to the needs of victims. The majority of its staff are from the Ministry of Justice, with some seconded from the Police Prosecution Unit, the Police Gender Unit and the Ministry of Health.7 Elsewhere, justice ministries have permanent structures responsible for advancing gender equality. In Afghanistan, for instance, the Ministry of Justice Gender Department was established in 2011, with responsibility to promote gender equality, increase the representation of women in the sector, support women in the sector and create equal opportunities for recruitment and advancement.8 In Palestine the Ministry of Justice Gender Unit, among other tasks, coordinates the work of the Gender Fair Legislation Committee. This committee is composed of legal advisers from across ministries and institutions responsible for drafting legislation, and is tasked with reviewing legislation from a gender perspective.9 In the United States gender task forces have been established to identify and examine the consequences of gender bias in the courtroom and develop mechanisms to mitigate its effect.10 It is also considered good practice for a truth commission to have a gender unit or subcommittee to support the transitional justice mechanism to address obstacles to women’s participation and adequately and sensitively reflect GBV and human rights violations.11 In 2018 the truth commissions in Mali, Tunisia, Colombia and The Gambia had gender units or subcommittees. Gender networks, portfolios or platforms can also be effective in engaging judicial and legal professionals in identifying innovative ideas and supporting reform efforts. 4.8 Handling GBV cases better* Protecting victims and witnesses Special measures for the protection of victims and witnesses, especially in cases involving GBV, need to be in place and effective. Witness and victim protection should include safe houses, temporary shelters and protective orders, the removal of perpetrators of domestic violence from their household, and protection from blackmail or threats. Measures should ensure that the police are informed when victims/survivors are considered to be at risk of being harmed during the legal process. Beyond providing physical protection, measures need to be taken to avoid retraumatizing victims, which can lead to high attrition (drop-out) rates. It is important that GBV cases are handled efficiently and sensitively, with a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach that centres on the needs and concerns of the victim/survivor. This includes the following. Ê Unnecessary delays are avoided, but short recesses are allowed when the victim/ survivor is distressed. Ê Victims/survivors are permitted to be accompanied throughout the trial by a support person such as a family member, friend or professional support person. Ê Questioning which is discriminatory, unnecessarily persistent, irrelevant (such as a person’s sexual history when unrelated to the case) or informed by gender bias is disallowed. * Proper handling of GBV cases is also addressed in Tool 2 on “Policing and Gender”.