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Rashida Manjoo

Doctor of Laws

Rashida Manjoo is an internationally recognized lawyer, teacher, advocate, and public servant who has worked to advance women’s rights and human rights around the world. 
Since 2009, Ms. Manjoo has served as Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women for the United Nations Human Rights Council, documenting abuse and calling attention to nations that fail to comply with international standards on the human rights of women.

A native of South Africa, Ms. Manjoo helped to enshrine the rights of women in South Africa’s constitution, leading to the development of the Women’s Charter during the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy. She also served as a member of South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality, a constitutional body mandated to promote and protect the rights of women.   

To ensure that South Africa’s laws against domestic violence are upheld, she has been deeply involved in developing both national and provincial anti-violence resource networks. She established the gender unit at the University of Natal’s law clinic and founded the Domestic Violence Assistance Programme at the Durban Magistrates Court, the first such project in South Africa. The program quickly emerged as a model for other courts in South Africa and around the world.
She brings this same expertise and influence to the International Criminal Court, where she is a member of the advisory board to the court’s Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and a prior member of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice. Ms. Manjoo is also a member of both the International Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations and the Women Living under Muslim Laws Network.

Ms. Manjoo has served as the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow with the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, as the Des Lee Visiting Professor for Global Awareness at Webster University, and as a distinguished international fellow at the University of Virginia.