Dr Michelle R. Maziwisa is the new Programme Manager for the Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (HRDA) Masters Programme at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. Maziwisa previously served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute, at the University of Western Cape, Cape Town. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ronald Watts Young Scholar Award for her essay on External Economic Arrangements and South African Cities as Agents of Local Development. Her work on women’s rights is broad and includes sexual and reproductive rights, representation and participation in democratic processes, and feminist trade justice.
The HRDA programme started in 2000, as a partnership between the University of Pretoria, the University of the Western Cape, Makerere University and the University of Ghana. The HRDA accepts 25 to 30 students from across the African continent each year. The 2023 programme has 27 students from 19 African countries who were selected from a pool of 321 applicants.
Dr Maziwisa holds a Doctor of Laws Degree (LLD) in Public Law (focusing on international trade and investment law) from the University of the Western Cape and a Master of Laws in Commercial Law (LLM) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (including a semester abroad at the Bucerius Law School (Hamburg, Germany). She is a Marie Curie fellow and has conducted research stays at various institutes including the Institute for Comparative Federalism (ICF) at Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy), Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg (Switzerland), and Hamburg University. As a Programme Manager, she oversees the relations between the CHR and its donors, of which the European Union has been the longest-standing supporter of the programme.
Michelle’s expertise includes international trade and investment law, regional integration, business and human rights, human rights in Africa, international human rights law, constitutionalism, democracy and good governance, inclusive and participatory democracy, decentralisation, local government, cities, intergovernmental relations, feminist macro-economic justice (trade, investment, tax, climate justice), sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s representation and participation.
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