MORE THAN 50 per cent of working women globally, 600 million, are trapped in insecure jobs without legal protection, according to the first report of the new agency UN Women.

A similar number do not have even basic protection against domestic violence, it finds, while sexual assault has become a hallmark of modern conflict.

Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of UN Women, said the document showed millions of women had no access to justice.

“The report reminds us of the remarkable advances that have been made over the past century in the quest for gender equality and women’s empowerment,” she said.

“However it also underscores the fact that despite widespread guarantees of equality, the reality for many millions of women is that justice remains out of reach.”

For millions of women in rich and poor countries, the search for justice is fraught with difficulty and is often expensive; laws and legal systems frequently discriminate against them.

In Cambodia, for example, the forensic test necessary to lay a rape charge costs two weeks’ wages. In Kenya a land claim in an inheritance case can cost $800 (€555) and extend across 17 different administrative stages.

Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice is a comprehensive survey of women’s access to justice across the globe. The report offers 10 recommendations to overcome the paradox that while huge improvements have been made in the legal position of women over the last century, there is still a dramatic lag in translating that into equality and justice.

For example, 127 countries do not have effective laws on marital rape, and attrition rates in cases brought by women are high, ensuring that only a fraction of reported rapes result in conviction. The report cites one 2009 European study which found, on average, only 14 per cent of reported rapes ended in conviction.

The first of the 10 recommendations is providing support for women’s legal organisations, which often step into the gaps left by inadequate legal aid systems. In a number of countries, women’s groups have been at the forefront of cases that have led to laws being repealed, or new laws created, with a positive impact on women’s lives. In Nepal, for example, the supreme court ordered parliament to amend the rape law in 2002 to allow prosecutions for marital rape after a case brought by the Forum for Women, Law and Development. In Indonesia, a local NGO has trained community-based paralegals to support women to use the religious courts to get the marriage and divorce certificates they need to claim benefits.

Other recommendations include further legal reform to ensure paid maternity leave, equal pay and property rights, support for services to deal with crimes like rape and an increase in recruitment of women into the police.

The report highlights progress globally, arguing that change can be achieved with innovative policies.