When States delegate legal authority to traditional, customary or religious systems they bestow on them a range of powers which are not always subject to rights standards and norms nor to state oversight. These systems, usually known as parallel or plural systems, can have jurisdiction over marriages, family law issues, dispute resolution and informal systems of community justice. These issues are often at the heart of women’s experiences of male violence.    

Join IFLN’s next webinar to hear and learn from Zarizana Aziz and Satang Nabaneh in a discussion of parallel legal systems.  

Zarizana Aziz is a law, gender and human rights specialist affiliated with the Due Diligence Project, a non-profit, dedicated to reimagining effective implementation of human rights through research, analysis and capacity development to refine State accountability standards on contemporary and emerging issues. Zarizana specialises in law and policy reform as well as capacity development. Her work focuses on intersections of human rights, gender, law and policy, culture and social norms.

Satang Nabaneh is a Research Professor of Law and Director of Programs at the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton. She is also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, and a Research Fellow at the Centre on Law and Social Transformation, Chr. Michelsen Institute, University of Bergen. Her expertise lies in human rights, women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, democratisation, constitution-making, and transitional justice.  

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