Southern Africa

Nikki Naylor

Acting Representative Johannesburg

Nikki Naylor works on human rights and HIV/AIDS issues from the foundation’s Southern Africa office in Johannesburg. Her grant making focuses on realizing the progressive rights enshrined in the region’s constitutions and advancing the human and socioeconomic rights of poor and vulnerable populations, with a specific focus on people living with HIV/AIDS.

Before joining the foundation in 2007, Nikki worked as a lawyer in the equality program at the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (Interights) in London, focusing on international human rights and litigation before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. Previously, Nikki worked as a lawyer at the Women’s Legal Centre, a public interest law firm based in Cape Town that protects and promotes women’s rights. Nikki challenged violence against women through litigation and advocacy at the national and international levels and was involved in a number of key cases that set legal precedent relating to sexual harassment, rape and child abuse. Earlier in her career, Nikki practiced law at one of the largest commercial law firms in South Africa.

Nikki has been appointed to a number of advisory bodies, both in South Africa and other parts of the continent, such as the Committee on Gender Equity, established by the South African Minister of Education, and a Nigerian Committee of Experts, set up to review draft legislation on violence against women in Nigeria. She is a member of the African Commission’s expert committee for the protection of the rights of people living with, at risk for or otherwise affected by HIV in Africa. Her work on violence against women and HIV/AIDS has been published widely within South Africa and internationally.

Nikki completed an LL.M. degree with distinction in international human rights at the University of London. Earlier, she obtained two law degrees, a B.Proc. and an LL.B., in South Africa.