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Women's Legal Centre

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Areas of expertise & Fields of activity:	Economic and Social: Culture HIV/AIDS Human Rights International Law Justice Women Women/gender Equality Gender Issues and Advancement of Women: Advocacy and outreach Capacity building Education and training of women Human rights of women Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women Millennium Development Goals Policy advice Research The girl child Trafficking in women and girls Violence against women Women and HIV/AIDS Women and health Women and poverty Women and the economy Women in power and decision-making
Geographic scope:	Regional Africa
Country of activity:	South Africa
Millennium Development Goals:	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Promote gender equality and empower women Improve maternal health
Mission statement:	The Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) was established in 1999 by the Women’s Legal Centre Trust. It is a non profit, independent law centre that seeks to achieve equality for women, particularly black women, through impact based litigation, the provision of free legal advice to women, supporting gender advocacy campaigns in collaboration with other women’s rights organizations and providing training that ensures that people know and understand the impact of court judgments around women’s rights. The WLC is based in Cape Town but operates nationally. The WLC has identified 5 strategic areas on which to focus. These areas are: violence against women; fair access to resources in relationships; access to land/housing; access to fair labour practices and access to health (particularly reproductive health). In order to work towards the transformation of the profession and broader society the WLC provides information, training and capacity building on a regional level to other organisations. We also train candidate attorneys to ensure transformation of the profession, and seek to make submissions on the gender record of acting judges before they are appointed.
Year established:	1999
Year of registration:	2004
Organizational structure:	The Women's Legal Centre Trust is registered as Trust under the Trust Property Control Act and as a Non Profit Organisation, with tax exempt status. The WLC is registered as a law centre with the Law Society of South Africa. The WLC is governed by a board of trustees consisting of six women. The Director (Jennifer Williams) holds a BA LLB degree from the University of Cape Town and comes from a litigation and management background, with 13 years experience as an attorney. The staff complement is made up of the Director, 1 full time senior attorney, 2 full time junior attorneys and 1 part time attorney, 1 legal advisor, an administrator, 2 litigation secretaries, a receptionist and a messenger/cleaner. The entire staff comeplement is female. Each attorney conducts the litigation and related advocacy work in her focus area/s. Advocates are briefed where necessary to provide opinions and for court appearances. The book keeping function is outsourced. Full audits are conducted annually by independent auditors.
Number and type of members:	This is not a membership based organisation
Affiliation with NGO networks:	Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, 1 in 9 Campaign, Shukumisa Campaign
Funding structure:	Fees for education and training services Donations and grants from domestic sources Foreign and international grants

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