Event Press Release
Notice of the Violence Against Women Litigation (VAW) Institute for the 3rd Cohort of the Feminist Litigation Network (FLN), July – August 2024
For Immediate Release
22 July 2024
The VAW Litigation Institute: Introduction to Strategic Litigation on VAW & Due Diligence State Obligations
Date: 22 July -2 August 2024
Johannesburg, South Africa
The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) will be hosting the First Litigation Institute of the Feminist Litigation Network (FLN) Cohort Three. The thematic focus will be on an introduction to feminist strategic litigation on VAW and due diligence state obligations. The event will take place for two weeks from 22 July to 2 August 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
ISLA’s Litigation Institutes are a two-week long series of capacity strengthening activities that take place twice a year, over a three-year period of partnership with key partners involved in strategic litigation.
The participants are feminist lawyers that will become part of the Feminist Litigation Network which lies at the centre of ISLA’s work. It aims to develop a pool of African feminist litigators by providing quality and long-term support to strengthen their knowledge and practice on key issues related to Violence Against Women (VAW) and Women’s Socio-Economic Rights (WSER).
The overall objective of this VAW institute is to impart knowledge and skills to the network lawyers to be equipped to strategically litigate violence against women cases at national, regional, and international levels. Similar to previous institutes, the VAW Institute will incorporate both theoretical and practical components, guided by a faculty comprising academic and legal practitioners with expertise in the specific areas of each module.
The Institute requires full engagement, in-depth interaction with the readings and presentations provided by the experts and includes one-on one contact sessions with members of the faculty.
Week 1 of the institute will be focused on practice, procedure and the substance of the thematic area of concern, VAW. The key objective of practice and procedure is to introduce the participants to key theories that guide ISLA’s approach to strategic litigation. This part will address the meaning and significance of feminist legal theory, introduce strategic litigation, and explore methods, tools, and templates for conducting strategic litigation.
The focus on VAW will provide a comprehensive outline of VAW, its definition, the development of normative frameworks around it at regional and international levels, the nature of state obligations arising from these instruments and the ways strategic litigators can leverage these obligations to secure redress for victims and survivors of VAW at national, regional and international levels.
Week 2, which will be the last week of the Institute will focus on assessing the levels of knowledge of the participants to gauge the extent of their strengthened capacities. This will include written assessments, oral assessments, a drafting exercise, and a moot court. The moot court will be based on a hypothetical case designed by ISLA staff. Participants will draft arguments accordingly in favour of, or against, the motion proposed in the case, and make submissions before a panel of judges.
We look forward to an engaging learning experience with the Third Cohort of the FLN and a great journey for the next three years! We hope to bring you along with us on this journey of capacity strengthening for feminist strategic litigation in Africa.
About ISLA
The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) is a feminist and Pan-African organisation whose mission is to protect sexual and women’s human rights through litigation and capacity strengthening initiatives. We use the law to hold state and non-state actors accountable for human rights violations based on gender and sexuality. Using a rights-based framework, we endeavour to improve the lives of women, girls, and people whose rights have been violated based on gender, sexual identity and orientation; to highlight positive developments and emphasise cross-learnings from various countries on the continent; and seek to highlight and assert women’s leadership and contribution in the African human rights system while centering women’s voices and experiences in the jurisprudence to surface gender bias.
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For more information about this event please contact:
Name: Kay Mahonde, Feminist Litigation Network Manager
Email: kay@the-isla.org