United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women) collaborated to produce 22 country reports on Gender Justice and the Law in consultation with national stakeholders.

The 2022 country reports examine six areas of legislation, namely the general legal framework of the State; legal entitlement and public life; protection from violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres; employment and economic benefits; personal matters and family life; and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Inspired by Goal 5 on Gender Equality of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new reports expand the number of indicators employed to assess the status of alignment of national laws with international standards in these six areas from 29 indicators used in the seminal set of similar reports published in 2018 to 74 indicators.

Findings show that across the region progress has been made in the area of legal capacity. Today, women have equal rights in all 17 countries to a national identification card; to request a passport; to enter into contracts; to own assets and register businesses; and to initiate legal procedures in civil matters.