Andrea – Joy Jantjies

Profile

I obtained my LLB from the University of the Western Cape, where I was first exposed to legal education and activism through the Street Law program and dedicated my time as a volunteer. During my undergraduate studies I cultivated a passion for human rights and social justice and spent my vacations volunteering at the ENS pro-bono office. Here I developed my skills as an activist and lawyer providing support to the pro bono unit in various outreach and education programmes.

In 2021, I interned for the Women’s Legal Centre where I focused on women’s rights and realising the right to equality and non-discrimination for women through an intersectional lens, in the Equality in Relationships focus area. I also conducted research on women’s rights at work with a specific focus on harassment and violence in the workplace.

I am currently employed at the Women’s Legal Centre as a Junior Associate, where I work in the women’s rights to live free from violence and, women’s rights to just and favourable working conditions programmatic areas. I have gained experience in strategic litigation and advocacy, international and parliamentary submissions, legal drafting, court exposure and legal education and training. I have been a co-contributor to research into the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in South Africa as it relates to violence against women.

“under the right conditions, small simple actions can produce large complex effects.” I have always been obsessed with butterflies because they signify transformation and growth and have found one of my favourite metaphors by feminist Catherine MacKinnon. She argues that the right seemingly minor interventions in the legal realm can have a butterfly effect that generates major social and cultural transformations. I see the work that I do, as strategic interventions that effect change.