ISLA is a non-profit organization registered in 2015 and based in South Africa with a mandate to establish and develop a feminist and Pan African approach to strategic litigation as a powerful tool for social change. We seek to use the rule of law and African domestic and regional courts to advance women’s human rights and sexual rights. We are the first Africa-based and -run strategic litigation initiative with a regional focus and expertise on women’s human rights and sexual rights.

Our vision is to realise an Africa where sexual rights and women’s human rights are fully enjoyed by all because these rights are protected and progressed by law.   We implement Social justice lawyering to shape the Africa we want – that is free from discrimination, poverty, violence, slavery, ill-treatment – persecution – with respect for bodily autonomy and human dignity.

ISLA undertakes its efforts to eliminate Violence Against Women (VAW) through four pillars: Litigating for Social Change, Strengthening Capacity to Litigate, Building Partnerships for Social Change and Producing Knowledge to Support Strategic

Litigation.  Our violence against women thematic area aims to enhance the protection of women from violence through the articulation of progressive standards and contribute to the development of legal precedents that elaborate on state obligations to protect women

from violence. Primarily, ISLA works towards achieving this through strategic litigation before domestic courts and regional human rights systems.