Sibongile Ndashe

Sibongile Ndashe is the founder and executive director of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA). She is a feminist who works at the intersection of public interest litigation, movement building, legal empowerment and capacity strengthening.

Sibongile has worked as a public interest lawyer for twenty-five years and has designed and implemented capacity strengthening programmes for lawyers for over fifteen years. She nurtures young lawyers with a view to developing a pool of feminist litigators. Her work focuses on women’s rights and people whose rights are violated on the basis of gender identity, expression and sexual orientation.

Sibongile's fellowship will focus on legal actors, examining how anti-rights groups are  countering the human rights agenda. The aim is to understand their strategies, explore the reasons for their success, and propose a response to defend and reclaim the human rights agenda. Although the primary focus is on the African continent, the research holds broader relevance and comparative value. Analysing these tactics and their adaptability in different contexts will assist in developing a comprehensive strategy.