FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 January 2026
Women’s Socio-Economic Rights (WSER) Litigation Institute
Date: 2–13 February 2026
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
The Women’s Socio-Economic Rights (WSER) Litigation Institute will take place from 2–13 February 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Convened by the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), the Institute is the flagship capacity-strengthening activity of the Feminist Litigation Network (FLN) and will focus on feminist strategic litigation addressing disability rights, accessibility and access to justice, and the socio-economic harms associated with immigration detention.
ISLA’s Litigation Institutes are structured two-week learning programmes that combine legal analysis with applied litigation training. The WSER Litigation Institute will convene FLN network lawyers from across Africa to strengthen ongoing feminist strategic litigation practice at domestic, regional, and international levels. The programme supports participants to use strategic litigation to address structural inequality and advance women’s socio-economic rights, while contributing to the development of feminist jurisprudence and sustained litigation practice across jurisdictions.
Week One will focus on the socio-economic rights of women with disabilities and the implications of immigration detention for women’s rights. Sessions will examine structural barriers, accessibility, access to justice, patterns of deprivation, and relevant legal and normative frameworks.
Week Two will centre applied litigation practice. Participants will engage in drafting exercises, litigation strategy development, written and oral assessments, and preparation for a moot court simulation. The programme will conclude with a moot court exercise providing a practical opportunity to apply the learning.
Faculty
The Institute faculty will lead distinct thematic and practice components of the programme.
Dr Dianah Msipa will lead modules on the socio-economic rights of women with disabilities, accessibility, access to justice, and related legal and normative frameworks.
Dr Rosemary Mwanza will lead modules on immigration detention, including contextual analysis, gendered and intersectional harms, and legal frameworks relevant to detention-related socio-economic rights violations.
Carolene Kituku will lead the applied litigation components, including remedies in feminist strategic litigation, drafting exercises, amicus curiae practice, and moot preparation.
About ISLA
ISLA is a Pan-African feminist organisation working to advance women’s and sexual rights through strategic litigation. ISLA’s work is guided by three goals:
- Jurisprudence – To develop jurisprudence through the courts to hold state and non-state actors accountable.
- Enabling Environment – To create an enabling environment for strategic litigation, with a focus on lawyers, social movements, and institutions that work on strategic litigation.
- Strengthening – To strengthen civil society to respond to threats and attacks that weaken civic space and human rights.
About the FLN
The Network supports the growth of feminist litigators across the continent and strengthens the institutional and professional foundations needed to sustain strategic litigation practice. Through this work, the FLN contributes to the development of feminist jurisprudence and to creating an enabling environment for strategic litigation, in line with ISLA’s goals.
The network lawyers in the current cohort (Cohort III) are based at AdvocAid, Amnesty International Kenya, Chapter One Foundation, FIDA Kenya, KELIN, Kituo Cha Sheria, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), Utu Wethu Trust, and the Women Lawyers Association of Malawi.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Kay Mahonde-Chaterera
Feminist Litigation Network Manager