Telephone	+27 31 260 1406
	Email	holnessw@ukzn.ac.za
	Campus	Howard College
	Building & Room	HC Building – Suite H 1F-140, 1st Floor
Ms Willene Holness

Biography:

Ms Willene Holness is a lecturer at the School of Law in the fields of Constitutional Law and Gender and the Law (LLB) and at masters’ level in the Child Care and Protection Law programme (Child Care Policy and Legislation and Roles of Professionals in Proceedings affecting Children); the Labour Studies programme (Employment Discrimination Law); and the Constitutional Litigation programme (Advanced Constitutional Law). Willene is the disability liaison for the School of Law with the University’s Disability Unit.

Her research interests lie in the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly access to justice and employment discrimination on the basis of disability, sexual reproductive health rights, as well as the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

Appointment Designation:
Lecturer

Academic Qualifications:

BA, LLB (Rhodes University), LLM (UKZN) cum laude

Professional Qualifications: 
Admitted as an attorney of the High Court of KwaZulu-Natal

Research Interests:

Rights of persons with disabilities, access to justice, employment discrimination on the basis of disability, implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, gender issues, particularly sexual reproductive health rights. 

Professional Qualifications: 

Admitted as an attorney of the High Court of KwaZulu-Natal

Publications:

• W Holness ‘The right not to be deprived of property’ in A Govindjee (ed) Introduction to Human Rights Law (2nd edition) (2016) LexisNexis (forthcoming).
• W Holness ‘Language and culture’ in A Govindjee (ed) Introduction to Human Rights Law (2nd edition) (2016) LexisNexis (forthcoming).
• W Holness ‘Arrested, detained and accused persons’ in A Govindjee (ed) Introduction to Human Rights Law (2nd edition) (2016) LexisNexis (forthcoming).
• W Holness ‘The development and use of sign language in South African schools: the denial of inclusive education’ (2016) African Disability Rights Yearbook (forthcoming).
• W Holness ‘Employment equity and elimination of discrimination: Where are women with disabilities in the hierarchy?’ (2016) Agenda (currently online available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2016.1187521).

• W Holness ‘The implications of article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child for the state, children of parents with intellectual disabilities who are “at risk of neglect” and their parents’ (2015) Stellenbosch Law Review forthcoming.
• W Holness ‘Equal recognition and legal capacity for persons with disabilities: incorporating the principle of proportionality’ (2014) 30 (2) South African Journal of Human Rights 313-344.
• W Holness ‘Book review: Marcia H Rioux, Lee Ann Basser and Melinda Jones Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and Disability Law’ (2014) 30 (2) South African Journal of Human Rights 393-404.
• W Holness & S Rule ‘Barriers to advocacy and litigation in the Equality Courts for Persons with Disabilities’ (2014) 17(5) Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 1907-1963.
• W Holness ‘Informed consent for sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities in light of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ (2013) 27 Agenda 35-54.
• W Holness ‘Equality of the graveyard: participatory democracy in the context of housing delivery’ (2011) 26 SAPL 1-36.
• W Holness ‘The right to property’ in A Govindjee & P Vrancken (eds) Introduction to Human Rights Law LexisNexis (2009) 217-229.

Membership of Professional & Other Organisations: 

Board member (director) of the Community Law and Rural Development Centre, a paralegal organisation in KwaZulu-Natal.