Amanda Dissel has a BA and LLB degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. She practiced law as an attorney from 1991 to 1994. She joined the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in 1994 where she was Manager of the Criminal Justice Programme for 15 years. During this period she was involved in research, policy-based advocacy and direct interventions related to policing, imprisonment and rehabilitation of offenders, torture prevention, restorative justice, child justice and crime prevention. While at CSVR she was part of a team that compiled a series of research papers on the violent nature of crime that was commissioned by the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster of government. Since leaving the CSVR in 2009, Ms Dissel worked as an independent consultant on a range of projects. In regard to policing, her work has included research in several southern African countries including Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. She was involved in drafting indicators for the implementation of the Code of Conduct for the Southern African Regional Chiefs of Police Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) and in compiling an assessment of policing against these standards. She has also been involved in research on gender based violence and policing in the Southern African Region for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and for the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa conducted a scoping study on the nexus between the criminal justice system and mental and intellectual disability in Zambia.  Her work has also looked at safety and security concerns facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals (LGBTI). On prison-related issues, she recently completed a research report on staffing numbers in the Correctional Services for Sonke Gender Justice. From August 2012 to October 2014, Ms Dissel served as Secretary to the Commission of Inquiry into allegations of police inefficiency and a breakdown in relations between the police and community in Khayelitsha. Amanda Dissel was the delegate in South Africa for the Geneva-based Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) from 2009 to April 2015. In May 2015, Ms Dissel joined the Western Cape Department of Community Safety as the Director of Policy and Research.

Linda McFarlane, MSW, LCSW, is the Executive Director of Just Detention International. Linda manages all of JDI’s work, in the U.S. and internationally, and serves as the organization’s primary spokesperson. A licensed social worker, Linda has more than 30 years of experience working with survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. Previously, Linda served as JDI’s Deputy Executive Director. In that role, she trained corrections officials, medical and mental health practitioners, and direct service providers in preventing and responding to sexual violence behind bars. She also worked with corrections agencies on implementing programs to make their facilities safer. Before joining JDI in 2005, Linda worked in community rape crisis programs, foster care, and with adults with mental illness. She also worked as a staff member, unit supervisor, and therapist in a detention facility for girls with mental illness.

Mpho Nefuri is the founder of Nefuri Attorneys. She holds an LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Venda.  She further attended practical legal training through The School for Legal Practice (LSSA) the same in 2005. Ms Nefuri is an admitted Attorney of the High Court since April 2007. She is also certified in various expertise fields which include, Human Rights Advocacy/litigation, Civil Litigation, Legislative Drafting, Contract Management, and Labour Dispute Resolution. Ms Nefuri served her articles of clerkship at Salome le Roux Attorneys in Pretoria, where she was trained and mentored to provide legal assistance to clients. She also worked at Mphela and Associates Attorney as a professional assistant and office manager. Later, Nefuri joined the Human Rights Institute of South Africa (HURISA) as a communication and advocacy manager. It is through HURISA that Ms Nefuri expanded her interests on human rights. She has collaborated with different state departments on drafting and working on South Africa’s Universal Periodic Review, and was also part of the delegation to UN Security Council where South Africa tabled its resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity. Ms Nefuri developed a strong interest in the protection and promotion of human rights in South Africa, regionally and internationally. Xenophobic attacks, homophobic attacks and other forms of hate crime influenced Ms Nefuri to initiate a legal practice to tackle hate crimes across the country. Ms Nefuri is also a board member of Iranti-org. She gives advice on legal issues that affects LGBTI community.

Robert Peacock is President of the World Society of Victimology and Chair in the Department of Criminology at the University of the Free State (UFS). Before joining the UFS this year, he was academic leader of the Criminology and Forensic Studies Cluster at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Since the apartheid years in South Africa he has been working actively in the field of victimology with child justice and institutional victimisation as particular focus areas. Areas of expertise refer to the victimisation of children deprived of their liberty, street/community children, transitional justice and the victimology of international crimes. He has been playing an active role within the scientific community with the presentation of research findings at various international symposia and has been invited as a visiting professor to the Faculties of Law, University of Valencia (Spain) and Universita degli studi di Bari (University of Bari, Italy), and Leuven Institute of Criminology (LinC), Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). In addition, he has presented guest lectures in Criminology and Victimology at Monash University (Australia) and the University of Indonesia. Prof. Peacock is a founding member and course co-director of the African Postgraduate Course of Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminal Justice of the World Society of Victimology.  He has been the recipient of a number of awards (for instance, honorary academic colours, Media Publication Awards, study and teaching awards). In the fields of criminology, victimology, law, social and criminal justice, he is the author of several scientific publications (in English, Spanish and Afrikaans). Prof Peacock assists regularly on the scientific committees of international and local conferences and as an editorial board member of the international scientific journals Quaderni del Dipartimento di Bioetica (Italy), Temida (Serbia), Ethnicity and Criminal Justice (USA). Prof Peacock served for a number of years as the editor of the accredited and peer reviewed Southern African Journal of Criminology, Acta Criminologica. Most recently, Prof Peacock was the editor of the text Victimology in South Africa (2013).  

Sasha Gear is Co-Director at JDI-South Africa, based in Johannesburg. Sasha works closely with the South African Department of Correctional Services and civil society groups to address sexual abuse in detention and the associated health risks. Sasha also leads JDI-South Africa’s outreach with prisoner rape survivors. Before joining JDI, Sasha worked at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, where her research on sexual violence in South African prisons has helped bring this abuse out of the shadows. She has published several scholarly articles on issues of gender and sexual abuse in South African prisons.