Gender Justice in ADR: Do Informal Mechanisms Protect Women's Rights in Pakistan?

Abstract

In rural and peri-urban Pakistan, many civil and family disputes are settled through informal dispute resolution, such as jirgas, panchayats and community elder councils, without any formal legal structures or processes being involved. These mechanisms have a strong cultural basis and provide a rapid and easily accessible means for dispute resolution, but have been variously documented as places of systematic gender discrimination, where women's rights as defined by statutory law are often subordinate to customary norms that are rooted in patriarchy. The article looks at the structural aspects of informal ADR, which create gender unequal outcomes, reviews the constitutional and statutory protections, and empirical evidence of women's experience of informal dispute resolution in Pakistan, and discusses formal ADR institutions offered by the ADR Act 2017 as a possible gender-just alternative, and suggests a framework for gender-sensitive reform of ADR through Pakistan's constitutional obligations. 

Keywords: Gender Justice, ADR, Jirga, Panchayat, Women's Rights, Pakistan, Informal Dispute Resolution, Family Mediation, Constitutional Rights.