The African Feminist
Legal Voice

The African Feminist
Legal Voice

Submission Guidelines

The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) invites guest submissions for its blog page –
The African Feminist Legal Voice

We welcome original and thought-provoking pieces that engage critically with women’s rights and sexual rights issues in Africa and beyond, as well as developments within the African Human Rights System.

Please ensure you abide by the following guidelines, or your blog will not be accepted.

Categories

We encourage contributions in any of the following categories:

• Landmark African Case Law:
  These blog posts highlight landmark jurisprudence from across the globe, including cases from the African context, that have advanced women’s rights and sexual rights. These blogs will centre on older cases that have influenced later jurisprudence.
• New from the Courts:
  These blog posts look at relatively new cases (not more than about a year old) emerging from the Continent, whether at the regional or domestic level. The blog post will analyse a case and discuss its implications for feminist litigation practice and jurisprudence in Africa. The case need not be a full ‘win’ or even a ‘win’ at all, but it must hold some significance relating to women’s rights and sexual rights.
• Feminist Reimagining:
  These blog posts rewrite problematic judgements or particular sections of these judgements from an African feminist standpoint. This type of post would allow for a contributor to critique and redo a case or case section of their choice, with a link to the original case included to allow for a clear juxtaposition.
• Opinion:
  These are blog posts that represent a clear expression of the author’s views, opinions, and perspectives, allowing for the author’s positioning and ideas to shine, or for a certain topic to be engaged with critically.
• An enabling environment:
  These are contributions that highlight developments that impact the creation of an enabling environment for strategic litigation. These may include changes in rules of procedure, punitive costs orders for parties in strategic litigation cases, strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), independence of the judiciary, competent remedies that can be given in strategic litigation, and legal standing.

Topic

The submission form requires that you select one or more of the following topics/keywords to describe your blog post:

Abortion, Access to Justice, Advisory Opinions, Amicus Curiae, Arbitrary Arrest and Detention, Article 59(1), Arusha Initiative, AU Reforms, Case Management, CEVAWG, Costs, Countering Anti-Right Actors, Disability Rights, Discrimination, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Due Diligence, Education, Gender Identity and Expression, Gender Marker, Gender Reassignment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Housing, Human Rights, Immigrants, Inheritance, Inhuman Treatment, International Law, Intersex, Right to Life, Right to Property, Sex Work, Sexual Orientation, Sexual Rights, Sexual Violence, Social Movements, State Obligation, Torture, Trafficking, Trial advocacy, Violence

Submission Format

Submit the blog as a Word document, with references (if any) in hyperlinks or footnotes.

Length

Submissions can be short (300 – 600 words), standard (700 – 1000 words) or in-depth (1200 + words).

Language

All AU languages (English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Arabic) are accepted. If your blog is not in English, it should be accompanied by an English translation.

Original Work

The blog should be the original work of the author. Plagiarism or AI-generated blogs will not be accepted.

Offensive Content

We will not accept offensive, abusive, defamatory, or derogatory blogs.

Author’s Bio

Include a short author bio (1–3 sentences) at the bottom of your blog.

Images

Should you wish to include an image in your blog, please ensure it is licensed for commercial use, that you have the requisite permissions to use it, and that you cite its source. The creation of images by AI is permitted, as long as you cite the AI image-generation tool/model utilised.

Acceptance and Review turnaround

ISLA reviewers have absolute discretion to accept a submission for publishing. If your blog is accepted, we will notify you via the email you provide on the submissions form. If you do not hear from us, please assume that your blog has not been accepted.

• First review
  We will aim to review your blog and provide feedback within 2 weeks. You will be expected to incorporate our feedback within 1 week.
• Second review
  We will carry out a second round of review within 1 week, after which you will be expected to incorporate our feedback and finalise the piece within 1 week.

Author’s agreement

In submitting a blog, an author agrees that –

• The blog is their original work, and was neither plagiarised nor AI-generated;
• Even if the submission exists on other blogs, this does not impede ISLA from publishing the blog;
• ISLA can use and store the personal data provided by the author – including their name, position, organisation and bio. This personal data will be published alongside the blog post on ISLA’s website and mailing list. This personal data may also be shared on ISLA’s social media – including LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

Submission

Blogs are to be submitted on our online submission form below.

To submit a blog, please fill in the details below: