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Good practice Imported

Corporación Casa de la Mujer – Feminist Rights and Legal Advocacy, Colombia (1982–present)

Colombia · Bogotá · See the Colombia profile · See the Bogotá profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 55% 63/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Founded in Bogotá in 1982, Corporación Casa de la Mujer has trained ~90,000 Colombian women in rights awareness across 20 regions, strengthened 1,000 women’s organisations, and co-drafted Law 1257/2008 on violence against women over four decades of feminist advocacy.

~90,000
Women trained/advised (1982-present)
~1,000
Women's organisations strengthened (1982-present)
20 of 32
Departments reached
3 (Laws 294/1996, 1257/2008, 1448/2011)
National laws co-drafted
Corporación Casa de la Mujer – Feminist Rights and Legal Advocacy, Colombia (1982–present)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Corporación Casa de la Mujer
Period
1982–present
Keywords
civil society, legal advocacy, gender equality

Context

Colombia's Corporacion Casa de la Mujer was founded in Bogota in 1982 by feminist lawyers and activists responding to the legal invisibility of women in a society marked by armed conflict and widespread gender-based violence. Over four decades it has grown into one of Latin America's most prominent women's rights organisations, combining legal services, political advocacy and popular education.

Objectives

The organisation works to strengthen Colombian women's autonomy, rights recognition and political participation, and to build the organisational capacity of women's groups across the country.

Activities

Casa de la Mujer provides direct legal assistance to survivors of physical and sexual violence and to families of femicide victims, leads coalition work through the National Roundtable on Women, and played a key role in drafting Laws 294/1996 (family violence), 1257/2008 (non-violence against women) and 1448/2011 (victims' reparation and land restitution).

Results

The organisation has trained and advised approximately 90,000 Colombian women across different ethnic backgrounds, geographic regions, and sexual and cultural identities, and has contributed to the organisational capacity of approximately 1,000 women's organisations across 20 of Colombia's 32 departments.

Conclusions

UN Women Colombia recognises Casa de la Mujer as a pivotal contributor to the national women's rights architecture, and a 2020 OECD assessment situates Colombia as a frontrunner in the Latin American and Caribbean gender-equality legal framework, crediting civil-society organisations like Casa de la Mujer. However, no independent cost-effectiveness evaluation or systematic outcome measurement of training impact has been published.

Implementation

Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Feminist lawyers and activists providing legal services and advocacy, Coalition leadership via the National Roundtable on Women

Conditions for success

  • Sustained civil-society coalition work across departments
  • Direct legal-services delivery paired with legislative advocacy

Where it fits

Governance type
civil-society organisation
Scale
national (20 of 32 departments)
Income level
upper-middle income

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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