CFJ Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program 2025 (Funded) Deadline: 4 August, 2024

Applications are open for the CFJ Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program 2025. The fellowship is a new effort to empower the next generation of feminist lawyers to advance rights for women & girls in their communities.

The aim of CFJ’s Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program is to equip African gender justice champions with the tools they need to challenge inequality through the courts. These organizations partner with WJW on key issues such as removing legal barriers to girls’ education, combatting child marriage, promoting accountability for gender-based violence, and combatting economic discrimination and criminalization based on gender stereotypes.

Having a fully funded lawyer for a year increases the ability of these organizations to deliver access to justice for women and girls. CFJ’s Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program also provides Fellows with mentorship, training, and access to leading lawyers, judges, activists, and academics from across Africa and around the world. They will look to expand the number and geographical scope of the Fellowship in future years.

Costs

• CFJ’s Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program will provide Fellows with the equivalent in local currency of a $25,000 USD gross annual salary. Additional travel or work expenses may be covered at the discretion of CFJ and/or the host organization.

Eligibility

• Have a qualifying law degree.
• Admitted to practice as a lawyer in at least one of the countries of the host organizations.
  • Fellows must be admitted to practice as a lawyer in the respective country of their host organization of choice.
• At least two years of post-qualification experience in the legal field. (As this fellowship is for early-career women lawyers, we will be less likely to consider women with more than five years of legal experience post-qualification).
• Experience in women’s rights and working in human rights organizations preferred.
• Be a citizen or have work authorisation in either Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, or Liberia.
  • Costs relating to international relocation and acquiring work authorization cannot be supported.

Skills and Competencies

• Experience working with survivors and/or impacted communities.
• Experience integrating gender and child-sensitive perspectives into substantive work.
• Interest in gender equality and women’s rights.
• Commitment to the mission and goals of the Clooney Foundation for Justice and relevant host organizations.
• A demonstrated ability to conduct complex legal analysis and fact-finding.
• Excellent research, writing and verbal communication skills.
• Self-starter with excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice and human rights and creativity in crafting strategies to advance justice in the priority areas.
• Willingness to travel.
• Fluency in English required; proficiency in other working languages relevant to the countries of host organizations preferred.

Deadline: 4 August, 2024

Application

Applications for the 2025 class of CFJ’s Waging Justice for Women Fellowship Program will remain open until Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 11pm SAST. After that deadline, CFJ will screen applications in conjunction with partner organizations, and shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interviews in September. Offers for the 2025 class of Fellows will be made by November. Those selected for a Fellowship should expect to begin in January 2025.

Click here to apply

For more information, visit CFJ Waging Justice for Women Fellowship.