Project Coordinator
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3810
mispa.roux@up.ac.za
Mispa Roux is a coordinator at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights of a project to strengthen the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights in Africa, and she is also a senior research officer in the NRF SARChI Chair for International Constitutional Law at UP. She completed her LLB degree in 2006, an LLM degree in International Law in 2007, and her LLD degree in International Law in 2012, all from the University of Johannesburg. Her LLD thesis is entitled “A Comparative Analysis of the Causes for Breaching the Erga Omnes Obligation to Prevent and Prosecute Gross Human Rights Violations”, and it was completed under the supervision of Professor Hennie Strydom.
Prior to joining UP, she was a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Johannesburg between 2008 and 2022. She taught public international law, international criminal and humanitarian law, as well as human rights law. Mispa was further the Deputy Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC), a centre of the University of Johannesburg, between 2016 and 2022, and was also the founder and head of its Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit.
Mispa’s research focuses on international criminal law (in particular genocide, crimes against humanity, and sexual and gender-based violence), international human rights law, the law of state responsibility, and South African human rights law. She has published on these focus areas in a number of leading discipline specific accredited journals and peer-reviewed books, and has presented several academic papers at international conferences and national conferences. She also sits on the editorial board of the Constitutional Court Review (CCR), a law journal that devotes its attention to the work of the South African Constitutional Court.
Op-Ed's
Articles in peer-reviewed or refereed journals
- Mispa Roux “Early warning of gross human rights violations: an international law perspective” (4) Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg (Journal of South African Law) 2011 650 – 663.
- Mispa Roux “The erga omnes obligation to prevent and prosecute gross human rights violations with special emphasis upon genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity” African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law 2012 98 – 133.
- Mispa Roux “Reaction to early warning of gross human rights violations: preventative steps by the international community”, (3) Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg (Journal of South African Law) (2013) 453 – 477.
- Mispa Roux “Sexual violence during armed conflict and reparation: paying due regard to a unique trauma” African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law (2014) 87 – 110.
- Mispa Roux “A new era for international criminal law: rethinking the definitions of crimes against humanity and genocide through the scope of its evolution as an outgrowth of war crimes” (2017) Southern African Yearbook of International Law 80 – 118.
- Mispa Roux “Obstacles to the prevention of gross human rights violations” (1) Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg (Journal of South African Law) 2018 106.
- Mispa Roux “Contributing to the achievement of justice for victims of sexual and gender-based violence by implementing the legacy and experience of international criminal courts and tribunals” Volume 31 Stellenbosch Law Review (2020) 455 – 480.
- Mispa Roux “Addressing a selection of challenges faced at international courts and tribunals with jurisdiction over international crimes” African Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (2020) 44 – 77.
- Mispa Roux “Loyiso Coko v S (CA&R 219/2020) [2021] ZAECGHC 91 (8 October 2021): oblique subscription to rape myths as an indication of the urgent need to reform the mens rea test in acquaintance rape cases in South Africa” South African Journal of Criminal Justice 2022 (3) 356 – 372.
Chapters in books
- Mispa Roux “Comment: democratic flexibility and constitutional stability” in Charl Hugo and Thomas MJ Möllers (editors) Legality and Limitation of Powers: Values, Principles and Regulations in Civil Law, Criminal Law, and Public Law Volume 88 (Nomos Verlagsgeseelschaft and Juta & Co) (2019) 89 – 102.
- Mispa Roux and Kriyanka Reddi “Sexual and gender-based violence in the context of the Syrian armed conflict and the question of individual criminal responsibility for the perpetrators” in Hennie Strydom and Joanna Botha (editors) Select Essays on Governance and Accountability Issues in Public Law (African Sun Media, SUN PReSS) (2020) (double blind peer reviewed; editors applied for accreditation).
- Mispa Roux “The significance of the erga omnes obligation to prosecute genocide for legal certainty in international criminal law” in Hugo and Moellers (editors) Legal Certainty and Fundamental Rights: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Constitutional Principles in German and South African Law Volume 89 (Nomos Verlagsgeseelschaft and Juta & Co) (2020) (double blind peer reviewed; editors applied for accreditation).
- Mispa Roux and Sabreen Hassen “Legal certainty and international crimes: a public international law perspective” in Hugo and Moellers (editors) Legal Certainty and Fundamental Rights: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Constitutional Principles in German and South African Law Volume 89 (Nomos Verlagsgeseelschaft and Juta & Co) (2020) (double blind peer reviewed; editors applied for accreditation).
- Mispa Roux “Withdrawal from the International Criminal Court: South Africa’s legacy of overlooking the erga omnes obligation to prosecute international crimes by prioritising peace” in David Bilchitz and Raisa Cachalia (Editors), Magadalena Correa Henao and Nathalia Bautista Pizarro (Adjunct Editors) Transitional and Distributive Justice in Transformative Constitutionalism: Comparing Colombia and South Africa (Oxford University Press (forthcoming in 2023) (double blind peer reviewed; editors applied for accreditation).
