Crystal Dicks,

is the Director of the Gender Equity Office at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She brings close to 30 years of political and feminist activism to this role. Her sense of activism was ignited by her quest for justice and working with grassroots structures pre-and post-democracy. She established her career in the international labour movement holding various positions with her portfolios revolving around gender, education and research. At Wits, her office is responsible for receiving and investigating complaints of gender based violence; providing a counselling service; raising awareness and providing advisory support around gender inequality; and challenging patriarchal practice within in the University and beyond. She is currently completing a PHD focused on women and feminist movements and their struggles for a gender equitable world.

Kimani Ndung’u,

is a practicing human rights lawyer and founder of Ndung’u Attorneys, based in Johannesburg. He holds an LLB from the University of South Africa, and an LLM (International Law) from the University of Cape Town. Kimani has worked for many leading civil society organisations in South Africa including the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Project of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (1999-2000), the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (2001-2002), the Freedom of Expression Institute (2002-2005), the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (research arm of the Congress of South African Trade Unions-COSATU) (2006-2012 & 2013-2015), and the Foundation for Human Rights (2012-2013).

David Cote,

is a Barrister and Solicitor with the Law Society of Upper Canada with extensive experience in issues relating to refugee protection, international law and public interest litigation. As head of LHR’s Strategic Litigation Programme, he provided technical support to LHR’s programmes and their litigation activities and conducted high level constitutional litigation in various fields including administrative law, international criminal law and refugee law. He was further responsible for policy advocacy and hosted regular training programmes on refugee law, immigration law and public interest litigation.

Thandeka Chauke,

is an attorney in the Land and Housing Unit of Lawyers for Human Rights, South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences and a Bachelor of Laws from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. She joined LHR in 2016 and completed her articles of clerkship in 2018. Her passion lies in advocating for the human rights of marginalised and indigent persons by using the law as an instrument to balance the scales of social justice. Over the years, she has gained experience in various fields including public interest litigation, constitutional law, administrative law, eviction law, land reform and restitution, mining law and immigration law.

She has also developed a keen interest in the realisation of socio-economic rights and has worked directly on cases relating to; unlawful evictions in urban and rural areas, access to housing and the provision of basic services to informal settlements, the recognition of informal land rights, the protection of the rights of informal traders to earn a living and judicial enforcement of court orders. Some of these cases culminated in ground-breaking victories in the Land Claims Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Melanie Judge,

is a queer and feminist activist and scholar, and adjunct associate professor in public law at the University of Cape Town. She holds a doctorate in women’s and gender studies, a masters in development studies, an honours in psychology, and a business management diploma. As an independent consultant, Melanie collaborates with local and international non-profit organisations and donors on strategy, facilitation and research to advance social justice. Her work on sexual and gender rights is widely published on academic and popular platforms, and her books include Blackwashing Homophobia: Violence and the Politics of Sexuality, Gender and Race (2018, Routledge) and To Have and To Hold: The Making of Same-sex Marriage in South Africa (2008, Fanele). Melanie is an executive member of the sexuality and gender division of the Psychological Society of South Africa, a trustee of the GALA archive, and the 2016 recipient of the Social Change award, granted by Rhodes University in recognition of her activism and scholarship in the field of sexuality.