On 28 February 2025, the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, in collaboration with the Gender Equity Unit at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), hosted a training session on accessing Equality Courts in South Africa. The training comes during the week of Cape Town Pride, and less than 2 weeks after the murder of Imam Muhsin Hendricks, a prominent LGBTIQ+ activist who advocated for the rights of LGBTIQ+ Muslims and pioneered safe religious spaces within the Islamic community.
The training forms part of a series of workshops to strengthen understanding and accessibility of equality mechanisms, bringing together students, activists, and civil society organisations committed to advancing human rights and social justice.
The training is premised on the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA) and understanding its purpose within the South African equality framework. The participants reflected on their own meaning of equality and how they believe equality can be achieved. Participants also reviewed concepts relating to LGBTIQ+ terminology, to ensure understanding of terms and the challenges of the LGBTIQ+ community especially in increasingly hostile contexts of increased violence toward sexual and gender minorities.
A significant portion of the training was dedicated to practical exercises, including case studies on unfair discrimination, hate speech, and harassment. Participants were guided through the procedural aspects of filing cases, and preparing for and attending a hearing. The session also allowed for critical discussions on the socio-political realities of trans and gender diverse persons, including barriers to healthcare services and gender affirming care and services.
This training demonstrates the Centre and UWC Gender Equity Office’s shared institutional commitment to advancing equality and empowering individuals with the knowledge and tools to seek redress against unfair discrimination. By enhancing legal literacy and access to justice, the initiative contributes to a broader vision of human rights protection in South Africa. This initiative along with the advocacy table at the Cape Town Pride Mardi Gras,, staffed by colleagues from UWC and the CHR, are a few of the ways that both institutions are working to affirm the visibility of LGBTIQ+ persons and advance the protection and promotion of their rights.
The Centre would like to thank the Gender Equity Office at the University of the Western Cape for support in organising the training, the participants and civil society organisations that attended, as well as the European Union (EU) for their ongoing financial support in the Equality Courts project.
For more information, please contact:
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
ch.vanderlinde@up.ac.za