As South Africa marks Women’s Month throughout August, a gathering of women who work at the heart of the country’s justice system turned their attention to a reality that continues to threaten the safety, dignity, and freedom of women and children: gender-based violence.
The 2026 Annual General Conference of the
South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (SAC-IAWJ) brought judges, magistrates, legal practitioners, academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders to the University of the Free State (UFS) from 7 to 9 August. Hosted by SAC-IAWJ in partnership with the UFS
Faculty of Law, the conference was held under the theme ‘From Policy to Protection: Advancing Accountability, Justice, and Systemic Reform to End Gender-Based Violence in South Africa’, placing the gap between South Africa’s legal commitments and the lived experiences of survivors firmly at the centre of the conversation.
For Judge President Segopotje Mphahlele, President of SAC-IAWJ and Judge President of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court, the gathering offered an opportunity to reflect on how far South Africa has come since the adoption of its Constitution, while confronting what remains unresolved. “Thirty years into our constitutional democracy, we must ask whether we have realised the transformative vision of our Constitution, particularly for women and children, who continue to face gender-based violence,” she said.
From constitutional promise to lived reality
That question echoed throughout the conference as delegates examined what it takes to turn laws, policies, and constitutional rights into protection that survivors can actually experience.
Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development
Andries Nel said the conference theme spoke directly to one of the country’s greatest constitutional, social, and human rights challenges. “Passing laws is essential, but legislation cannot end gender-based violence. Constitutional promises must be translated into practical protection. Rights must become lived realities. Institutions must inspire confidence. Survivors must experience justice not as an aspiration, but as a reality,” he said.
South Africa has developed an extensive legal and institutional framework to respond to gender-based violence, including specialised Sexual Offences Courts, survivor support measures, enhanced investigative and prosecutorial mechanisms, access to post-exposure prophylaxis, and a strengthened National Register for Sex Offenders.
But Deputy Minister Nel cautioned that the effectiveness of these reforms depends on how they are implemented by the people who administer justice. “Laws alone are not enough. Their effectiveness depends on the commitment of investigators, prosecutors, legal practitioners, magistrates, and judges, who give practical effect to constitutional rights every day,” he said.
It is this distance – between what the law promises and what women experience – that Judge Mphahlele urged delegates to confront honestly. While acknowledging the significant strides made towards gender equality within the judiciary and other institutions, she said gender-based violence continues to devastate the lives of countless women and children across the country.
She called on delegates to reflect not only on how far the country has come, but on how much further it still needs to go, and to renew their collective commitment to ensuring that policy is translated into meaningful protection.
Deputy Minister Nel also highlighted the growing representation of women on the Bench, saying this has enriched South African jurisprudence and strengthened public confidence in the administration of justice. Women judges, he said, have made a measurable contribution to developing a justice system that is more responsive to the experiences of survivors and more attentive to the realities of discrimination and inequality.
From conversation to change
For UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal
Prof Hester C. Klopper, the question of implementation is equally important to the University’s role in society. “The value of this conference will not be determined by the distinction of those in the room, or the quality of the papers alone. It will be determined by what changes because we gathered,” Prof Klopper said.
Hosting the conference during Women’s Month created an important space for scholarship, judicial experience, public policy, and professional practice to meet around one of the country’s most urgent challenges. Prof Klopper pointed to the responsibility of universities to contribute to systemic change, not only by educating future professionals but by producing research and evidence that can help identify why systems fail, which interventions work, and how justice can become more accessible to people across different communities.
That responsibility is particularly significant in the context of gender-based violence, which can see a survivor’s experience of the justice system either restore trust or deepen trauma. “For too many women, protection remains a legal promise rather than a lived reality,” Prof Klopper said.
The conference explored this challenge from several angles, including judicial wellness and vicarious trauma, criminal justice and evidentiary theory, structural inequality, civil liability, and strategic litigation.
The breadth of the discussions reflected the reality that gender-based violence cannot be addressed through legislation or the courts alone. The response requires accountability across the institutions responsible for prevention, investigation, prosecution, adjudication, protection, education, and care. It also requires these institutions to work together to identify where cases are lost, where procedures expose survivors to further harm, and where policies fail to translate into action.
Judge Mphahlele said the task is to confront these remaining barriers honestly – and renew the collective commitment to ensuring that policy becomes meaningful protection.
For Deputy Minister Nel, that commitment must be matched by the people who give practical effect to the law.
And for Prof Klopper, the measure of a gathering such as this lies ultimately beyond the conference itself. “The movement from policy to protection requires capable institutions, adequate resources, credible evidence, clear accountability, and leaders who are prepared to confront failure rather than explain it away,” she said.
The challenge emerging from the conference is therefore not simply whether South Africa has policies, laws, or constitutional protections. It is whether those commitments are being implemented in ways that women and children can experience in their everyday lives.
As Women’s Month celebrates the contributions and achievements of women, this gathering of women judges at UFS offered a reminder that advancing women’s rights also requires confronting the systems that continue to leave many women unsafe.