Rashida Manjoo

Rashida Manjoo grew up in Durban, South Africa. Manjoo learned of the injustices towards women from a young age. Raised by two strong female influences, her grandmother and mother, she saw their strength in times of poverty in Apartheid South Africa.[3] Living in apartheid South Africa allowed Manjoo to view the violence against women and lack of accountability from a young age.[4] Through Manjoo’s parent's importance on education was expressed upon Manjoo and her five sister,[5] Manjoo’s personal history with the apartheid and her higher education guided her into many civil society positions, advocating for improved human rights standards.

Manjoo grew of age in South Africa during a time that extenuated the history of colonization, and a system that did not consider women equal, but inferior. Naturally, becoming interested in challenging oppression and discrimination in its many forms, she started working as a women’s liberation campaigner in anti-apartheid groups across South Africa.[6][7]

Manjoo is a professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town.[8] She previously served as the Parliamentary Commissioner on South Africa's Commission on Gender Equality, the Des Lee Distinguished Visiting Professor at Webster University, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow with Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program.[2] Manjoo also taught at the University of Natal, Durban.[9]

Manjoo was an educator for not only her university students but lawyers and judges as well. Manjoo established and taught social context training for judges and lawyers, designing content and methodology intended to improve experiences within the judicial system. As an educator, Manjoo has held numerous visiting professorships around the globe; including the Des Lee Distinguished Visiting Professor at Webster University in the United States. At Webster University, she has taught courses on human rights, with a particular focus on women's human rights and transitional justice. Manjoo also was a clinical instructor for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School in 2005 and 2006 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2006-07.[10]

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Manjoo and many other feminist activists added focus to the intersectional perspective, by including race and gender in the discussion of inequality and discrimination.[11] Manjoo and other intersectional feminists began forming coalitions or networks for women in South Africa, such as the Women’s Charter which Manjoo created in her province in South Africa.[12]

The different coalitions for women would reflect the desires and demands of the women in South Africa, especially in reaction to the treatment of women during the apartheid. During the time of apartheid and the following transition period towards democracy, there was rampant state-sponsored violence against women and other minority groups such as student protesters. The Women’s Charter and other groups focused their efforts on increasing awareness of the violence towards women and generating support for those women.[13]

Manjoo’s work for human rights for women led to her involvement in regional and international discussions on justice for women, including work on the Protocol on Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), the African Court on Human Rights, and the Rome Treaty (International Criminal Court). Manjoo worked internationally with these groups to recognize how violence against women is manifested and translated those manifestations into categories of crime under international criminal law.

Through the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice and the Coalition on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Manjoo worked to link women’s local knowledge and presence in global initiatives to support women, and to illuminate the existence of gendered violence and strengthen international criminal law to prevent and prosecute.[14] Manjoo worked to expose the negative effects of violence against women, and the interplay between different individual, family, community, and social factors on violence and the perpetuation of violence against women.[15]

Manjoo worked as a human rights lawyer throughout her career, including for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to create shadow reports— which are disclosed reports that can be submitted by Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) to articulate and advocate for certain needs of citizens which are currently being unsupported or mismanaged by national governments. Manjoo spent time with CEDAW and other activists, drafting a submission on violence against women in both local and global communities, in theory, and practice. Manjoo subsequently served for five years as Parliamentary Commissioner in the Commission on Gender Equality to hold governments accountable to national constitutions; again, using various independent organizations (including NGOs) to regulate the accountability of national governments.[16] This position gave Manjoo the ability to work within a state structure while emphasizing the national need for support of women in the discussion of human rights. Manjoo also used her position on the Commission on Gender Equality to reject the theory of solely analyzing civil and political rights independently, but rather urging for a holistic approach to human rights including intersectional experiences. [17]

During Manjoo’s lifelong career advocating for activism against oppression and discrimination, Manjoo dedicated much of her efforts to educate students across the globe.[18]

• William McKinley Award for Good Governance - Albany Law School (2013)[33]
• International Human Rights Award - American Bar Association (2014)[33]
• Honorary degree of Doctor - University of Glasgow (2015)[34]

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences (2017)[35]
• The Challenges of Formalization, Regulation, and Reform of Traditional Courts in South Africa (2015)[36]
• Bridging the Divide’: An Interview with Professor Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (2015)[37]
• The Continuum of Violence Against Women and the Challenges of Effective Redress (2014) [38]
• Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Addendum : Mission to India: comments by the State on the report of the Special Rapporteur (2014)[39]
• Trafficking of Women: Norms, Realities, and Challenges (2014)[40]
• The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission- A Model for Gender Justice (2012)[41]
• Domestic Violence Support Services Will Fail Without Agency Networking (2011)[42]
• Gender-based Violence and Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Areas (2011)[43]
• The Right of Public Participation in the Law- Making Process and the Role of Legislation in the Promotion of This Right (2008)[44]
• Gender Injustice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007)[45]
• The Recognition of Muslim Personal Laws in South Africa: Implications of Women’s Human Rights (2007)[46]
• What’s in a Name? The Identity and Reform of Customary Law in South Africa’s Constitutional Dispensation (2006)[47]
• South Africa’s National Gender Machinery (2005)[48]
• Gender Rights Within the Framework of Traditional or Group Cultural Norms and Rights (2005)[49]
• Legislative Recognition of Muslim Marriages in South Africa (2004)[50]

• Women's rights in 2014

• Statement by Ms. Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences", Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-eighth session, 11 March 2014.