Dr. Satang Nabaneh is a socio-legal scholar, researcher, consultant, and human rights advocate with expertise on human rights, comparative constitutional law, and democratization. Her teaching and research focus on international human rights law and monitoring mechanisms; human rights in Africa, with particular focus on sexual and reproductive rights and women’s rights; democratization in Africa and Gambian constitutional law.
Through her research profile and advocacy, Dr. Nabaneh has engaged in research collaborations, writing and presenting conference papers, writing journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Nabaneh has substantial experience conducting research including systematic desk reviews and field research in multiple countries. Her work has been published in journals such as the Health and Human Rights Journal, International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, African Disability Rights Yearbook, Constitutions of the World, and the yearly I·CONnect-Clough Center Global Review of Constitutional Law.
She believes in harnessing legal scholarship and promote inclusive policies in the development process of The Gambia and beyond. She is one of few scholars with expertise focused on knowledge production on human rights in The Gambia. Dr. Nabaneh is competent, passionate, and committed to scientific research and policy change, especially in advancing the understanding, analysis, and finding solutions to advance development, human rights protection, good governance, rule of law, and democracy.
Dr. Nabaneh is currently a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, where, among other activities, she manages and coordinates the academic program (doctoral and masters) in Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Africa (SRRA). Her research interests include a broad range of issues related to human rights, women’s rights, democracy, and constitutionalism
She received her Doctor of Laws (LL.D) from the University of Pretoria. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the University of The Gambia. Dr. Nabaneh’s doctoral research focused on how laws, politics, socio-cultural and institutional factors shape the provision of abortion services by nurses and midwives in South Africa. The study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council through the Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health: Criminalisation, health impacts and game-changer project based at the Centre on Law and Social Transformation, Christian Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway. She also received a grant through the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (ADDRF) 2018-2020 coordinated by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Dr. Nabaneh has completed advanced professional courses on human rights, research methodology and scientific publishing, gender-based violence, gender and sexuality, program management, preventive diplomacy and mediation, and public international law.
Dr. Nabaneh is currently the Coordinator of the Masters, and Doctorate in Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Africa Academic Program at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. At the Centre, she is responsible for curriculum development of the academic program; providing overall project management and, overseeing the program funding and managing and maintaining relationships with partner organizations, institutions, development partners, donors, academia, and related groups. She is also a Research Affiliate at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the University of Bergen Centre on Law and Social Transformation in Norway.
Acting as a member of the university and scientific community, Dr. Nabaneh’s pedagogical qualifications are evident in her teaching and co-supervision of masters’ mini-dissertations. She teaches graduate modules including Introduction to Qualitative Research & analysis; Interview Research; Feminist perspective on international human rights law; The Right of Conscience in Sexual and Reproductive Health; and Legal Developments on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She previously worked with the Women’s Rights Unit at the Centre for Human Rights where she was responsible for providing technical support to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa and was part of processes for the development of norms on women’s rights in Africa including conductive formative research and drafting of general comments.
Prior to this, she taught at the Faculty of Law, of the University of The Gambia where she instructed on courses such as gender and the law, constitutional law, clinical legal education, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Dr. Nabaneh is the Founder & Director of Law Hub Gambia, a legal resource and knowledge platform on The Gambia. She was the Gambian Country Reporter for the ‘Constitutions of the Countries of the World’ published by the Oxford University Press and the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria.
Dr. Nabaneh is a consultant to government, international development entities, and non-profit organizations. Her consultancy portfolio ranges from an analysis, review, and translating of legal documents, law and policy drafting, development of strategies, the development of standard operating procedures, and easy-to-use advocacy resources. She is the founder and CEO of Ripples Consulting registered both in the United States and The Gambia. Dr. Nabaneh has served as a consultant and expert for UNDP, UNFPA, IRI, UNOWA, International IDEA, ISLA, RFSU, Gambian Government, national NGOs, and others.
In the Gambia, she served as the Coordinator Female Lawyers Association-Gambia (FLAG), a non-profit organization made up of female members of the legal profession. I used to oversee the running of the Secretariat and implementation of activities and areas of focus including the Legal Aid Clinic for women and children who cannot afford the legal services of a lawyer.
Dr. Nabaneh is an ardent social justice advocate and has spent more than a decade working at the intersection of gender, law, and democracy across Africa. She has extensive experience in the non-profit sector as a frontline advocate for women and children’s rights. She is a well-known, credible, and highly respected human and women’s rights advocate in The Gambia. She played a key role in the advocacy campaigns that led to the enactment of the Children’s Act 2005 and the Women’s Act 2010.
She is a co-founder a national feminist collective Think Young Women (TYW) in 2011, a non-profit organization for and by young women aiming to bring about a new generation of enlightened young female leaders. TYW works on a mission to inspire and assist girls and young women to achieve their individual needs and collective interests by developing their leadership skills empowering them through capacity building. She is also the co-convener of the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Network in The Gambia, a platform through which individuals and organizations advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls through advocacy, research, and coalition building.
Her other experiences focus broadly on elections and democracy (the AU Election Observation Mission and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) African Governance Network); and gender and mediation (AU’s Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation-FemWise-Africa and ECOWAS conflict prevention efforts in the region). She is also a member of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) Panel of Expert. ISLA is a Pan- African and feminist-led initiative that uses the rule of law and African domestic and regional courts to advance women’s human rights.
Writing, editing, advising to knowledge production on a wide range of advocacy publications and learning materials, such as: