- The 2025 theme, “Unfinished Freedom,” highlights South Africa’s implementation issues.
- LRC joins discussions on anti-corruption, sexual violence in schools, and refugee rights.
- The goal is to create systems that make rights real for people.
Public interest lawyers, activists, and community organisers will gather at Wits University from 22 to 23 October 2025, for the annual Public Interest Law Gathering (PILG), themed “Unfinished Freedom: Examining the Gaps Between Legal Promises and Lived Realities.”
The Legal Resources Centre will participate in three discussions that test the strength of South Africa’s democracy. These discussions will focus on using litigation to restore accountability after corruption, turning policies on educator sexual misconduct into real protections for learners, and removing barriers that deny refugee protection to queer asylum seekers.
Litigation that rebuilds and strengthens institutions
One of the Legal Resources Centre’s panels, hosted by Rashaad Dadoo, will focus on how litigation can drive accountability in the fight against corruption. The session will feature Claire Rankin from the Legal Resources Centre, Ariella Scher from Open Secrets, Andrea van Heerden from OUTA, and a representative from Corruption Watch. They will discuss how the courts can strengthen institutions instead of undermining them.
“Corruption is not just an ethical problem. It affects service delivery and trust,” says Rankin. “Litigation should aim to rebuild systems rather than replace them.”
The discussion will look at how well-designed remedies, such as supervisory orders, performance-linked milestones, and transparent data reporting, can support public administration. The message is clear: anti-corruption efforts only succeed when institutions serve ordinary people better.
Policy versus pain: protecting learners from sexual violence
The second discussion, linked to the Legal Resources Centre, called Policy versus Pain, will address the ongoing gap between learners’ rights on paper and the safety they experience. Hosted by Gauta Mashego of Section27, with panelists Dr Shaheda Omar from the Teddy Bear Foundation, Shaatirah Hassim from the Legal Resources Centre, and Lorraine Matshazi from the Commission for Gender Equality, the conversation will explore what a survivor-centered and legally compliant school system should look like.
“Families should not have to fight forms and phone calls just to be believed,” says Hassim. “A functioning system should prevent harm before it occurs and respond effectively when it does.”
The panel will discuss practical reforms, including standardized procedures, time-bound referral pathways, regular monitoring, and clear accountability when educators or officials fail. Commitments to sexual and reproductive health rights must provide assurance that every learner can enter class knowing they are protected and believed.
Queer asylum seekers and the crisis of procedure
In another key session, Yanela Frans from the Legal Resources Centre will discuss the experiences of queer asylum seekers navigating South Africa’s refugee system. Although the Refugees Act acknowledges persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity, many asylum seekers encounter procedural barriers that effectively deny them protection. These barriers include delayed decisions, biased credibility assessments, and gaps in documentation.
Frans will highlight practical solutions, such as better intake systems, improved interviewing guidelines, safer interpreter practices, and timely documentation to prevent rights gaps. “None of this requires new promises,” says Frans. “It needs the system to treat its existing promises as binding.”
PILG is a highly anticipated forum that brings together people from across South Africa and beyond who are concerned about cutting-edge developments in human rights and social justice. The event provides a space for attendees to discuss, debate, reflect, and exchange skills, knowledge, ideas, and strategies on approaches and interventions in public interest advocacy and litigation.
It promotes collaboration and networking within the public interest law, social justice, and human rights communities to improve and enhance access to justice and the quality of services and interventions provided to marginalised, vulnerable individuals and communities.
Participants include public interest legal practitioners, advice office workers and paralegals, community organisers and social movement activists, law students, legal academics, lawyers from the private sector and civil servants.
“Litigation, policy, and advocacy only matter when people can feel the change in their everyday lives.”
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