Bonita Meyersfeld
Associate Professor and Advocate
Prof Bonita Meyersfeld is a human rights lawyer, academic and activist with extensive experience in international law, gender-based violence and corporate accountability. She is an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law and a practising advocate at the Johannesburg Bar.
Domestic Violence and International Law argues that certain forms of domestic violence are a violation of international human rights law. The argument is based on the international law principle that, where a state fails to protect a vulnerable group of people from harm, whether perpetrated by the state or private actors, it has breached its obligations to protect against violation.
This book provides a comprehensive legal analysis for why a state should be accountable in international law for allowing women to suffer domestic violence and how this can help individual victims. It is irrelevant that the violence is perpetrated by individuals and not state actors. The state's breach of its responsibility is in its failure to act effectively in domestic violence cases; and in its silent endorsement, it becomes complicit.
Latest
publications
B. Meyersfeld. "Integrating Gender in NRM in Africa", in Routledge Handbook of Natural Resource Governance in Africa (2024)
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E. Bonthuys, B. Meyersfeld, M. Mushariwa, K. Pillay, M. Richter and L. Vetten. "Gender, the economy and women's work", in Gender, Law and Justice second edition (2024)
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B. C. Meyersfeld and F. Sironi De Gregorio. "Support for victims of sexual violence", Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (2023)
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