Brittany Jeffs - SALC

Brittany is extremely pleased to be given the opportunity to participate in the Castan Centre Global Internship Program by providing legal and practical assistance to the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Brittany’s passion for human rights began in high school with her participation in Amnesty International. In 2011, after graduating to high school she travelled to Rwanda where she engaged with a small community still recovering from genocide. Hearing the stories of those that had lived experiences of surviving the genocide, of losing family members, and of those that actively fought in hand to hand combat to end the genocide was a life changing experience. Knowing that the international community, and that current human rights mechanisms were unable to prevent or stop what occurred in Rwanda is a difficult reality. Nevertheless, Brittany’s trip to Rwanda solidified her commitment to human rights, social justice and criminal justice issues.

Upon entering university, human rights were a priority in Brittany’s studies. As part of her Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Arts degree she has minored in human rights theory, studied European Human Rights Law in Italy, and International Human Rights Law in Malaysia. She continues to be involved with and volunteer at the Debaters Association of Victoria, both judging high school and primary school debates and training students in debating techniques. This volunteer work has given her the opportunity to educate students on human rights and social justice issues, and to teach them to think critically about different responses that might be used to address such issues.

Brittany is particularly interested in how human rights and gender intersect, and much of her current focus is on how women’s rights can be greater protected by the current human rights instruments. Current practices such as child marriage, female infanticide, female genital mutilation and denial of abortion services are some of the more obvious human rights violations that affect women. But women also disproportionally lack access to education, food and property. Of concern is that such violations are often dismissed as simply “cultural practices”. Brittany believes that the most effective response to address these issues is to not only utilise international and regional human rights instruments and legal advocacy, but also to directly engage with the women in affected communities.

The SALC uses a combination of national, international and regional human rights instruments to litigate rule of law and human rights cases in more than ten Southern African states. They can directly defend victims of violations through legal advocacy, while at the same time working directly with law makers and organisations on the ground to change laws at a domestic level that threaten human rights. Brittany is most excited about being able to engage in tangible human rights work by using her legal skills, knowledge and research to provide direct assistances to the legal personnel working within the SALC.

Brittany is extremely grateful to both the Castan Centre and Monash University for this unique opportunity and is looking forward to contributing to the essential work of the SALC.