Women’s Rights and Law Enforcement in the Post-Soviet World

This project examines how judges and police deal with women’s rights cases in the post-Soviet world. More specifically, it explores why judges and police violate authoritarian legal codes to support some rights, and yet suppress others despite lenient state policies. The researcher argues that judges and police rule/act against the laws of an authoritarian state in accordance to their values of justice, which reflect public norms in a given country. This hypothesis was tested through field research of actual legal practices in Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, gathering legal records, including court documents and prosecutors’ orders; and conducting interviews with judges, policemen and crisis centers.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Sophia Wilson, of the University of Washington, was a 2011 Regional Policy Symposium participant.