CFJ Waging Justice for Women Fellowship 2026 – YOA

Deadline: August 4, 2025

Are you an early-profession girl lawyer from Sub-Saharan Africa? Join a strong community of changemakers advancing justice, accountability, and equality for ladies and ladies. Apply now for the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) Waging Justice for Women Fellowship 2026.

Fellows are anticipated to:

• Support the authorized work of their host organizations which can embrace offering direct authorized help to people, authorized analysis, authorized illustration, drafting submissions, partaking in advocacy and talking at occasions. The particular duties depend upon the mandate and focus of the host group.
• Identify and help at the very least one strategic litigation case designed to advance ladies and ladies’ rights in nationwide, regional or worldwide courts or UN mechanisms.
• Carry out at the very least two outreach actions to college students at a college or college on advancing ladies and ladies’ rights in the course of the fellowship.
• Engage within the Fellowship Program actions, together with mentoring, coaching and networking alternatives.

Benefits

• A paid work placement at a number one human rights group in Africa which focuses on gender justice points and strategic litigation.
• Mentorship by WJW’s Head of Fellowships and host organizations’ supervisors.
• At least one in-particular person convening and an in depth month-to-month on-line coaching program led by main human rights specialists.
• Networking alternatives with main human rights specialists, legal professionals, judges, activists and teachers and participation in occasions akin to Obama Foundation’s Girls OPPORTUNITY Alliance.
• Access to the WJW Fellowship Alumni Program community for continued help, information sharing and collaboration.

Cost

• Host organizations will present their fellows with the equal in native foreign money of a $25,000 USD gross annual wage. Additional journey or work bills could also be lined on the discretion of CFJ and/or the host group.

Eligibility

• An excellent candidate for CFJ’s Waging Justice for Women Fellowship shall be an African girl lawyer who’s accredited to follow legislation within the nation of one of many host organizations and who’s early of their profession (lower than 5 years {of professional} expertise, submit-accreditation). 
• Have a legislation diploma from a acknowledged educational establishment.
• Practicing Certificate and work authorization:
  • The applicant have to be admitted to follow as a lawyer within the nation of the chosen host group.
  • Fellows are anticipated to be based mostly within the nation of their host group, and as such, ought to have the proper to work within the host group’s nation. The host organizations are based mostly in The Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Tanzania.
  • Note that regional organizations – the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), based mostly in The Gambia, and the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), based mostly in Tanzania – are keen to simply accept purposes from certified candidates licensed to follow legislation in different African international locations. They could possibly help some worldwide relocation prices and work permits in such circumstances. However, for all different organizations, prices regarding worldwide relocation and buying work authorization can’t be supported.
• Relevant work expertise:
  • At least two years of submit-qualification expertise within the authorized area. As this fellowship is for early-profession ladies legal professionals, we shall be much less more likely to think about ladies with greater than 5 years of authorized expertise submit-qualification.
  • Experience in ladies’s rights and dealing in human rights organizations is most popular.

Application

Applications for the 2026 cohort of fellows shall be open from July 1 to August 4, 2025. Shortlisted candidates shall be contacted for interviews in September. Offers for new fellows shall be made by November 2025. Those chosen for a fellowship ought to anticipate to start in January 2026.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to CFJ Waging Justice for Women Fellowship.