NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 5 | ISLA FEATURE
Violence Against Women Litigation Institute, 2025
May 2026
By Zinhle Hlatshwayo
This newsletter piece reports on the second year of the Violence Against Women Litigation (VAW) Institute, which brought together Network Lawyers from across Africa for intensive training on feminist strategic litigation addressing obstetric violence and the rights of women with disabilities. This Institute combined theoretical grounding with practical application, covering lived realities, due diligence obligations, disability inclusive analysis, amicus brief drafting and structural remedies.
The Institute not only expanded the Network Lawyers technical capacity but also reinforced a regional community of feminist litigators committed to advancing transformative, rights-based responses to obstetric violence and all forms of VAW. As we look ahead, the collaborations, skills and strategies developed this year will continue to inform impactful litigation and advocacy across the continent.
Advancing Feminist Litigation in Africa: Highlights from VAW Year Two
From 22 September 2025 to 4 October 2025, ISLA kicked off the second year of the Third Cohort of the Feminist Litigation Network’s learning journey with a Litigation Institute on VAW, bringing together participants from South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi and Ghana for two intensive weeks of training. VAW year two was centred on feminist strategic litigation addressing obstetric violence and the rights of women with disabilities.
The Institute framed VAW as a multidisciplinary issue, but with strands that can be addressed through legal means. The Institute illustrated the interconnectedness of social norms, law making, legal reform and the setting of legal norms and standards, litigation, and advocacy, with questions of accountability for perpetrators and redress for victims and survivors of VAW, in the context of obstetric violence and the rights of women with disabilities.
Part One: Practice and Procedure
The first part focused on practice and procedure. Its objective was to introduce the participants to key theoretical and practical standpoints that guide the use of amicus curiae in women’s rights litigation.
Sessions provided a clear overview of the purpose and impact of amicus briefs, the procedural pathways for filing them in different courts, and the strategic considerations that inform when and how to intervene.
The Network Lawyers learnt about the role of amicus curiae in feminist strategic litigation, tracing its evolution from neutral assistance to a vehicle of intersectional, disability-inclusive and evidence-based interventions. Facilitators demonstrated how well-crafted briefs can widen the court’s lens, influence legal reasoning, and shape structural remedies, so long as they offer distinct value and avoid duplicating parties’ arguments.
Part Two: VAW and Rights of Women with Disabilities
The second part was focused on the substance of the thematic area of concern, feminist strategic litigation in the context of obstetric violence and rights of women living with disabilities. To do so, this part provided a comprehensive discussion on the legal contours of obstetric violence in Africa, including a contextual analysis, normative framework and opportunities for strategic litigation. It provided an analysis on how VAW intersects with rights of women with disabilities and the ways strategic litigators can leverage these obligations to secure redress for victims and survivors of VAW at national, regional and international levels.
Discussions examined the lived realities of women with disabilities, highlighting how social attitudes, inaccessible systems and clinical paternalism heighten risks of violence in obstetric care. Using practical scenarios, the Lawyers identified common failures, such as disregard for consent, missing accommodations and weak complaint pathways, and applied the “Basket of Care” framework to ensure safety, communication and sustained support for survivors. Strategic discussions reinforced the relevance of the Maputo Protocol and the need for an enabling legal environment, while a case study on Aline da Silva v Brazil illustrated how obstetric violence can be framed as a rights violation and structural discrimination.
The Lawyers revisited the due diligence standard through the lens of obstetric violence and the specific vulnerabilities faced by women with disabilities. Through case-based group exercises, the Lawyers examined how systemic gaps reflect State failures of prevention, investigation, accountability, and reparations. Emphasis was placed on connecting individual harms to broader institutional design flaws, developing forward-looking structural remedies, and analyzing country-specific challenges emerging from Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, and Uganda.
The Lawyers were equipped with a clear method for turning disability-related harms into strong pleadings: naming the specific violation, selecting core rights, framing state duties and crafting measurable structural remedies. The Lawyers also addressed jurisprudential gaps around disability and consent, and each jurisdiction committed to identifying domestic legal hooks and drafting clauses that operationalise disability accommodation in obstetric care.
Part Three: Moot Court
The final phase of the Institute gave participants the opportunity to put their learning into practice through assessments and a full moot court exercise. The hypothetical case concerned a woman with a disability who experienced obstetric violence, medical negligence, discriminatory treatment, and unlawful detention for inability to pay her hospital bill, and Network Lawyers were required to draft submissions on jurisdiction, admissibility, the merits, and appropriate reparations for the State’s failure to uphold her rights.
The judging panel offered focused feedback, urging teams to foreground concrete evidence of prejudice and context-specific delay, and to ensure that all proposed structural remedies were proportionate, rigorously justified, and firmly anchored in clear legal authority.
The VAW Institute concluded with a renewed sense of purpose, shared methodology and enhanced skills in feminist strategic litigation, equipping Network Lawyers with practical, rights-based tools to advance accountability and transformative remedies for women facing obstetric violence and disability-related discrimination.