Tool 2: Policing and Gender Ê Investing in infrastructure. ƒ For protection, such as witness protection screens, and separate and safe sanitation facilities (see section 4.8). Women and girls will often avoid places where toilets are shared with men, or privacy and security are not assured. ƒ To enable those who live in rural or remote places to access justice, for instance by establishing mobile courts and ensuring transport and accommodation for justice professionals who are deployed to remote areas. ƒ To enable those who have disabilities, including being blind or deaf, to access justice by making courtrooms physically accessible; and having readers for people who are illiterate or blind, interpreters for all ethnic groups in an area and signlanguage interpreters. ƒ To ensure childcare is available at courts. Ê Building trust and confidence in the justice system. ƒ Publicly communicating efforts being undertaken to be more representative and responsive to the needs of the people (by the justice ministry or, when appropriate, justice professionals themselves), which can increase public confidence and trust over time. In working to increase access to justice, the intersectional nature of discrimination and disadvantage should always be kept in mind. For example, while women may have limited access to justice, this can be compounded when they are also from an ethnic minority. Special consideration needs to be given to ensuring access to justice for particularly disadvantaged women and girls. This includes those who are poor, but also those who are from ethnic or religious minority groups, LGBTI, displaced, have disabilities, are illiterate or do not speak the official language(s) in a particular country. 4.12 Engaging with informal justice providers In many societies the majority of the population seek to resolve legal disputes through informal justice providers, so it is necessary to engage strategically and meaningfully with these providers if women, vulnerable men and LGBTI people are to be able to access justice.23 This is particularly necessary where informal justice providers are patrilineal and marginalize women. Ways to encourage informal justice providers to uphold human rights without any discrimination based on gender, and to ensure gender equality, include: Ê sensitizing them to ways in which human rights are being violated, the resultant harms and the obligations to guard against such violations under international law Ê advocating for gender balance in these informal justice mechanisms Ê raising awareness of human rights among communities, and thereby increasing expectations and incentivizing community-led reform efforts Ê identifying and supporting advocates within informal justice providers Ê establishing and supporting oversight or accountability mechanisms. Any engagement with informal justice providers needs to be informed by an understanding of their normative framework, power structures and the vested interests of key stakeholders. It is also important that engagement is informed by an understanding of how those seeking justice interact with informal providers, what needs they have and what challenges they face.24 41