Dugard, Jackie

Affiliated with Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI); School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Jackie Dugard has worked for many years advancing Socio-Economic Rights, especially housing, water, electricity and sanitation. She has focused on role of law and of courts in social change and has collaborated extensively with social movements in South Africa and beyond.

Between 2004 and 2009 she headed a Housing and Basic Services litigation, advocacy and research project at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In January 2010, along with Stuart Wilson, she co-founded South Africa’s first dedicated socio-economic rights organization – the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), which engaged in litigation, research and advocacy to advance poor people’s struggles for inclusion in South Africa’s economy and democracy. She served as the executive director of SERI until December 2012.

At present, Jackie Dugard serves as an associate professor of law in the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she teaches property law. She has long been active in ESCR-Net’s Strategic Litigation Working Group and the Campaign for the ratification of OP-ICESCR.