Room 6.18

BA, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
LLB, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
LLM (cum laude) University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa

Bio

Rashida Manjoo is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cape Town where she taught for many years in the Department of Public Law and where she convened the Human Rights Program. She continues to supervise PhD candidates in the Faculty of Law.

Prof Manjoo has over four decades of experience in social justice and human rights work both in South Africa and abroad. Until July 2015, she held the position of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, a post she was appointed to in 2009 by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Her UN work over six years has included monitoring and reporting on States' compliance in responding to and preventing violence against women, its causes, and consequences, both generally and in different country contexts. She has particularly highlighted the interaction of interpersonal, communal, institutional, and structural factors that negatively impact the interdependence and indivisibility of the human rights of women, and the challenges of the normative gap in international law on the issue of violence against women.

Prof Manjoo is the former Parliamentary Commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality, an institution created by the Constitution of South Africa, with a mandate to oversee the promotion and protection of gender equality and women's rights. She has also been involved in social context training for judges and lawyers, where she has designed both content and methodology.

She has authored several journal articles, book chapters and reports, including the most recent co-edited book 'The Legal Protection of women from violence - normative gaps in international law'.

Awards

• William McKinley Award for Good Governance - Albany Law School (2013)
• International Human Rights Award - American Bar Association (2014)
• Honorary degree of Doctor - University of Glasgow (2015)

Publications

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences (2017)
• The Challenges of Formalization, Regulation, and Reform of Traditional Courts in South Africa (2015)
• Bridging the Divide’: An Interview with Professor Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (2015)
• The Continuum of Violence Against Women and the Challenges of Effective Redress (2014) 
• Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Addendum : Mission to India: comments by the State on the report of the Special Rapporteur (2014)
• Trafficking of Women: Norms, Realities, and Challenges (2014)
• The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission- A Model for Gender Justice (2012)
• Domestic Violence Support Services Will Fail Without Agency Networking (2011)
• Gender-based Violence and Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Areas (2011)
• The Right of Public Participation in the Law- Making Process and the Role of Legislation in the Promotion of This Right (2008)
• Gender Injustice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007)
• The Recognition of Muslim Personal Laws in South Africa: Implications of Women’s Human Rights (2007)
• What’s in a Name? The Identity and Reform of Customary Law in South Africa’s Constitutional Dispensation (2006)
• South Africa’s National Gender Machinery (2005)
• Gender Rights Within the Framework of Traditional or Group Cultural Norms and Rights (2005)
• Legislative Recognition of Muslim Marriages in South Africa (2004)