40 Gender and Security Toolkit At times such efforts are given strong impetus through affirmative action, such as quotas and reserved places for underrepresented groups in the legislature and judiciary. For instance, in 2015 in the State of Victoria, Australia, a 50 per cent quota for women was introduced for the judiciary. By March 2019 42 per cent of judges and magistrates were women, up from 37 per cent when the quota was set.17 While there is strong evidence to show that quotas can be effective, efforts to increase the representation and empowerment of women need to be context- specific and take into account how quotas might work with other parts of the political and justice system.18 There can be similar initiatives or policies stipulating a certain proportion of women in informal mechanisms. For instance, government policy in Rwanda directs that a third of judges in gacaca tribunals should be women.19 In Ecuador the constitution obliges indigenous justice institutions to ensure the participation of women and respect for international human rights standards.20 Evidence suggests that increased representation of women among justice professionals increases access to justice.21 It should not be assumed, however, that simply increasing opportunities for women to join the justice sector will result in more women being employed in the sector. Cultural, structural and other obstacles preventing recruitment, retention and promotion need to be addressed. Moreover, it should not be assumed that recruiting more women alone will necessarily result in more gender-responsive policies and practices: women can have gender bias, or may lack the knowledge, support or inclination to press for change. While a justice sector more responsive to the specific needs of women requires that women are meaningfully and comprehensively represented throughout the system, the additional measures described in this section are needed. 4.11 Improving access to justice All the measures discussed in this Tool are broadly directed at facilitating access to justice. When working from an access to justice perspective, it is particularly important to include the following elements. Ê Legally empowering women, marginalized men and people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions (discussed further in section 4.14). ƒ Education on legal rights and how to assert them. Community-based paralegal programmes can be used to teach people what their rights are, how to utilize available legal resources and how to access the justice system. Free or subsidized hotlines to get legal advice should be available in all local languages. Innovative methods and new technologies can be used to reach out to women and marginalized groups. ƒ Engaging women, marginalized men, people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions and civil society in legal reform and oversight (see section 4.13). Ê Removing socio-economic obstacles. ƒ Providing legal aid for those who cannot afford legal representation. ƒ Providing transport or covering transport, accommodation, childcare and other livelihood costs associated with attending court. ƒ Fee waiver or reduction programmes. In Indonesia an increase in state funding in 2008 for the religious court’s fee waiver programme was partially responsible for a 14-fold increase between 2007 and 2010 in the number of people accessing religious courts; thus it significantly increased the number of poor people and women accessing justice.22