NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 5 | ISLA IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ISLA In The Spotlight
May 2026
NewzRoom Interviews
Concourt to Hear Arguments on “Consent” In Sexual Offences
Before the South African Constitutional Court is a landmark case on the definition of “consent” in sexual offense laws, including rape. The case stems from a challenge brought by a rape survivor, supported by the Embrace Project and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). Sibongile Ndashe weighs in on the discussion.
Click here to watch the full interview on NewzRoom Afrika.
Constitutional Court on Section 10(2) of the Recognition Act
On 21 January 2026, Sibongile Ndashe joined NewzRoom Afrika to discuss a landmark Constitutional Court ruling. The Court found that Section 10(2) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (the Recognition Act) requires judicial oversight to change a matrimonial property regime. As a result, the antenuptial contract between the wife (the First Defendant) and the husband (the Plaintiff), which purported to change their customary marriage in community of property to a civil marriage out of community of property without judicial oversight, was declared invalid.
During the interview, Sibongile delved into the history of customary marriages in South Africa, explained that customary marriages do not require registration to be legally recognized, and unpacked the implication of a lack of judicial oversight on financially weaker parties – most especially women.
Click here to watch the full interview on NewzRoom Afrika.
Difference She Makes Podcast
May 2026
In the finale of #DifferenceSheMakes, a new docu-series exploring how African women are transforming justice, institutions and power, Sibongile Ndashe speaks to host Adelle Onyango about the importance of not treating shambolic laws as sacred, and start asking who they were built for and whether they adequately protect these people.
Sibongile, a South African human rights lawyer, has spent decades pushing law beyond intention and into accountability. As founder of the @Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, her work strengthens feminist litigation capacity across the continent – challenging institutions, confronting power, and insisting that justice must be felt, not just promised.
During the Interview, Sibongile discusses the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AUCEVAWG). “Each article is fundamentally flawed. It is not just the clawback or the regression [of normative standards]. It is that it is nonsensical… This is not how you [draft a treaty],” she reflects. She further ruminates:
During a fireside chat between Sibongile and @Achieng Orero, we are reminded that laws need to be interrogated, inspected, and torn apart. Bad law, or in this case, bad treaties, cannot be proceeded with by virtue of the fact that they exist.
Beyond the discussion on AUCEVAWG, this Podcast offers a window into Sibongile’s hesitant journey into law, the birth of ISLA, and what feminist leadership looks like to her. Compassion, a guiding light in her own life, leaves listeners inspired and compelled to live lives that extend kindness and grace not only to others, but also to ourselves.
Click here to watch the podcast video.
FENCE Africa 24 Interview
May 2026
Kholekile Mnisi from Fence Africa 24 interviewed our Dr. Lesline Kouity to learn more about our work in Francophone West Africa. We appreciate the attention to detail and the background research that he brought to the interview. It allowed Dr. Kouity to discuss our work, enabling her to draw linkages to other continental processes that indirectly benefit from it. Our interventions are designed with a deliberately narrow remit to ensure we don’t spread ourselves too thin. Thoughtful interviews like these complement our advocacy strategies and help our work reach different disciplines and attract new audiences.
You can learn more about the work that Dr. Kouity is leading here.
15th NANHRI Biennial Conference
May 2026
The Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) held its 15th Biennial Conference in Yaoundé on the 5th and 6th of February.
Our Executive Director joined Honourable Idrissa Sow, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), and Dr Tony Ojukwu, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission. The panel was moderated by Cynthia Radert from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. ISLA’s topic was the jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Sibongile Ndashe’s intervention, on behalf of ISLA, focused on the ACHPR’s jurisprudence on sexual violence. We examined landmark cases to highlight the inconsistency in understanding gender-based violence as discrimination.
She also discussed the gaps in the AUCEVAWG and made a connection to how its failure to make a decisive link between violence and discrimination will exacerbate the inconsistency in the jurisprudence.
During the plenary, it was affirming to hear the former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, Justice Lucy Assuagbo, ask why the convention was drafted and seeking to understand the gap it sought to close, as she had read the AUCEVAWG and saw no value in the convention. This is an important question because we judge whether a tr is a success by looking back at the treaty initiation process to determine whether it is able to achieve its objectives. This convention has not achieved the normative gap that it sought to close.
This was a useful engagement because some NHRIs had not read the Convention but had moved from the premise that a child convention is a good thing.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Event – Speaking in Memory of Agnes Odhiambo
May 2026
Agnes Odhimabo, Former Senior Researcher at the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch (HRW), was the embodiment of a spirited activist of women’s rights. She drew focus on pertinent issues and boldly called for state action to align laws with international standards during the span of her career. Her research, which spoke truth to power, centred on pressing women’s rights issues spanning across the African continent – including discrimination of pregnant girls in Tanzania, sexual violence against women and girls in Kenya’s 2017 elections, child marriage in Malawi and South Sudan, as well as obstetric violence in South Africa. Agnes sadly passed away in 2023, and though her work and activism will continue to live on in her publications, the fight for women’s rights is far from over, especially in this age of regression of human rights.
On November 5, 2025, HRW held their yearly memorial event in memory of Agnes. The Memorial Event commemorated Agnes and the crucial work she carried out. Titled ‘The Agnes Odhiambo Memorial Talk 2025 – Reproductive Justice in the Age of Backlash: African Leadership in a Global Fight’, the event also explored women’s rights and sexual rights in the age of regression, flagged the inadequacies of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AUCEVAWG/ the Convention) in safeguarding women’s and girl’s rights; and spotlighted how African leadership and innovation continues to be evident in the global fight for women’s rights and reproductive justice, even amidst the push back from anti rights actors. Reproductive justice and women’s rights experts – Sibongile Ndashe and Evelyne Opono – shared their insights, with the conversation being moderated by Macarena Saez.
Watch the Memorial here.
Between legal guarantees and political constraints: An appraisal of public participation in Sudan
May 2026
by Razan Ali & Mai Aman
Mai Aman has co-authored a chapter with Razan Ali in “The State of Democracy in Africa” a new publication developed under the Global Campus of Human Rights Alumni Programme (2024–25) with support from the European Union.
The volume moves beyond broad narratives about “democratic progress” on the continent and instead interrogates lived realities across more than 30 African countries.
The chapter ‘Between legal guarantees and political constraints: An appraisal of public participation in Sudan’ focuses on a question that is often assumed rather than examined: what does participation actually look like in contexts of recurring authoritarian disruption?
Access the book here