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LLB(University of Buea), LLM(UP), PhD(Åbo Akademi University)
+27 (0) 12 420 3587
elvis.fokala@up.ac.za
Expertise:
Child Law, Family Law, Human Rights, African Human Rights System
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BA Law(UP) LLB(UP)
Programme Coordinator: Disability Rights Unit
+27 (0) 12 420 6345
t.mavunga@up.ac.za
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LLM(Geneva Academy) PhD(University of Neuchâtel)
Project Coordinator: African Coalition for Corporate Accountability
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 6210
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 574
sabenjamin.traore@up.ac.za
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BA Law(UP) LLB(UP) LLM Candidate(UP)
Project Officer: Democracy and Civic Engagement Unit
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 4199
tariro.sekeramayi@up.ac.za
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LLB(UP)
Moot assistant Coordinator
African Human Rights Moot Court Competition
Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition
Tel: +27 (0)12 420 4841
m.nyamadzi@up.ac.za
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Graphic Designer: Communications and Advocacy
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 4512
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
octavia.roodt@up.ac.za
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Ms Bianca Dyers
Project Intern: SOGIESC Unit
Tel: +27 (0) 72 02 55 286
linkedin.com/in/bianca-dyers
bianca.dyers98@gmail.com
Expertise/Skills: international human rights, international children’s rights, legal drafting, and research.
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Brian Kibirango | Uganda
Brian Kibirango is an avid researcher formally working as Research Programme Officer at the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) based at Makerere University’s School of Law. He aspires - through a career in academics - to influence socio-legal and political dialogue as well as influence policy formulation and implementation.
+27680318715
brian.kibirango@up.ac.za
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Tamika Thumbran | South Africa
Tamika Thumbiran is the In-House Counsel within the Litigation and Implementation Unit at the Centre for Human Rights. In this role, she represents the Centre in strategic impact litigation before domestic, regional, and international forums, advancing a broad spectrum of human rights. Her work also includes legal advocacy initiatives that seek to promote systemic change and strengthen human rights protections across the African continent.
Tamika also serves as the Project Co-ordinator for the Centre’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Africa (SRHR) Programme. In this capacity, she oversees the implementation of projects aimed at promoting sexual and reproductive justice, with a focus on legal reform, gender equality, and access to health services.
Tamika is also a practising member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates and an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and the Young African Leaders Initiative Network. She first joined the Centre as a Legal Fellow through the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Waging Justice for Women programme. Her legal expertise lies in gender rights, and she has worked extensively on issues affecting women and marginalised communities, combining litigation, research, and advocacy to achieve transformative outcomes.
Tamika has played a leading role in several notable cases. These include the Embrace Project NPC and Others v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and Others (04856/22) in the High Court, and its pending confirmation proceedings before the Constitutional Court of South Africa (CCT314/24 and CCT315/24), where the Centre—acting as amicus curiae alongside the Psychological Society of South Africa—advanced arguments on how peritraumatic responses to rape can impair a survivor’s ability to communicate, refuse, or withdraw consent, challenging the constitutional adequacy of South Africa’s current definition of rape.
She also contributed to the Centre’s interventions in Werner van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour(CCT308/23) and Commission for Gender Equality and Another v Minister of Employment and Labour and Others(CCT309/23), which challenge the exclusionary and gendered nature of maternity and parental benefits under the Labour Relations Act.
At the regional level, Tamika has been involved in the case of Amhara Association of America and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria v. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Communication No. 814/23), currently before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, addressing grave human rights violations committed during conflict in the Amhara region. She is also part of the legal team in Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, and Centre for Human Rights (on behalf of children affected by witchcraft accusations in Nigeria) v. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (Communication No. 0017/COM/001/2021), a case currently before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which seeks to secure justice and protection for children subjected to abuse and discrimination linked to witchcraft accusations.
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Postdoctoral researcher
Programme Manager, LLM in International Trade and Investment Law in Africa (TILA)
+27 (0)12 420 6200
rj.kabre@up.ac.za
Podcast
Dr Jonathan Kabre explains how his academic journey in the field of international relations led him to winning the 2020 Law Faculty Prize (Prix de Faculté) from the University of Lausanne for the best doctoral dissertation. His dissertation, through a comparative analysis of case-law of selected international courts and tribunals, examines the role of private lawyers (counsel and advocates) in the settlement of international disputes and their contribution to the development of international law. The monograph, coming from this dissertation, is in the editing process and should be out before the end of the year.
