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GENEVA – South African lawyer Rashida Manjoo, advocate of the
High Court of South Africa and academic in the field of human rights, assumed
her mandate as the new UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and consequences.
"Violence
against women violates human dignity as well as numerous rights, including
the right to equality, physical integrity, freedom and
non-discrimination" said Ms. Manjoo, who was appointed by the United
Nations Human Rights Council for an initial period of three years at the 11th
session of the Human Rights Council in June 2009.
"I
believe that equality and equal protection doctrines demand that we address
violence against women, in all its manifestations, as discrimination against
women. It is my hope to work within this framework during my mandate,"
she stressed.
The new UN
independent expert has taught and conducted research at a number of
universities. Most recently she was the Des Lee Distinguished Visiting
Professor at Webster University, USA where she taught courses in human rights
with a particular focus on women's human rights and transitional justice.
Ms. Manjoo
has also served as a clinical instructor and as the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow
with the Human Rights Program at Harvard
Law School. She is also a Research Associate in the Law Faculty of
the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
In addition
to her academic credentials, the new Special Rapporteur is the former
Parliamentary Commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), a
constitutional body mandated to oversee the promotion and protection of
gender equality. Prior to this appointment she was involved in training
programs for judges and lawyers at the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit, University of Cape
Town.
The new
independent expert was also involved in setting up both a national and a
provincial network on violence against women and is the founder of the Gender
Unit at the Law Clinic at the University of Natal as well as the Domestic
Violence Assistance Programme at the Durban Magistrates Court (the first such
project in a court in South Africa).
Ms. Manjoo
succeeds Dr. Yakin Ertürk (Turkey), who served from August 2003
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