International Day of Women Judges – 10 March

As International Day of Women Judges is celebrated today there are some ground-breaking, rule changing South Africa women judges who we can and should celebrate.

Yvonne Mokgoro and Kate O’Reagan were the first two female justices to serve our Constitutional Court and were instrumental in ensuring that women judges were not only recognised at the highest level of the South African judiciary but were recognised as valuable jurists of significant intellect, understanding and voice. 

Today our Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya continues this tradition setting an example of the role of women in every sphere of the legal profession having served as an attorney, prosecutor, state law advisor, lecturer, advocate, and judge of the High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and now the Constitutional Court.

And who can forget the ground-breaking Navanethem (Navi) Pillay who, as the only female judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda at the time, was instrumental in establishing that rape and sexual assault can be a crime against humanity. As she herself said the 1998 trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, “From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong signal that rape is no longer a trophy of war.”

Over the last three decades of our constitutional democracy these women and many others have and continue to reshape the role of women within the legal profession and the values of our society.

To our South African and international women judges – we salute you.  May you continue to be the voice of reasoned judgment, excellent character, inspirational leadership, and needed change.