Abstract
Chapter 1 builds on several themes in the Introduction by providing an overview of violence against women in Africa and a background on the creation of specialized criminal justice sector mechanisms. It identifies commonalities in the types of violence experienced in most countries and in the causes of this violence, as well as in what states have done in response. It highlights the role of patriarchal gender norms in causing this violence and in shaping the criminal justice sector’s response. The chapter also identifies the international women’s justice norm and shows how it has constituted and has been constituted by various international instruments. It discusses the emergence of specialized criminal justice mechanisms and draws on secondary sources to develop a typology of these mechanisms and to document their spread across the continent.