Rigour, courage, humanity: Kate O’Regan named fifth recipient of George Bizos Human Rights Award

From representing trade unions and communities threatened with eviction under apartheid to helping shape the jurisprudence of democratic South Africa’s highest court, Kate O’Regan has spent much of her legal career at the intersection of law, rights and social justice.

The former Constitutional Court Justice has now been announced as the fifth recipient of the George Bizos Human Rights Award, recognising a contribution the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) says has brought “rigour, courage and humanity to the law”.

O’Regan was appointed by Nelson Mandela to the newly established Constitutional Court in 1994, aged just 37, and served on its founding bench until 2009. Over those 15 years she helped shape constitutional principles and institutions protecting equality, accountable government and the rule of law.

Her commitment to rights and justice, however, stretches back well before South Africa’s constitutional era.

Practising as an attorney in Johannesburg during the 1980s, O’Regan worked particularly in labour and land law, representing emerging trade unions and their members, as well as communities threatened with eviction under apartheid land laws. She later joined the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law before her appointment to the Constitutional Court.

“Throughout her career, Justice O’Regan has brought rigour, courage and humanity to the law,” the LRC said in announcing the honour. “Her contribution reflects the enduring values embodied by Advocate George Bizos and the purpose of this award.

“It is a privilege to recognise an extraordinary woman whose life’s work has helped build and protect our constitutional democracy.”

O’Regan’s contribution continued beyond her Constitutional Court tenure. She served as an ad hoc judge of Namibia’s Supreme Court from 2010 to 2016, chaired the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into policing from 2012 to 2014, and was founding director of the University of Oxford’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights from 2016 to 2025.

The LRC inaugurated the George Bizos Human Rights Award in 2018 to recognise remarkable contributions to protecting, upholding and advancing human rights in South Africa. Bizos himself received the inaugural award, followed by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Justice Yvonne Mokgoro and human rights lawyer Geoff Budlender.

One of South Africa’s most celebrated human rights lawyers, Bizos defended Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu at the Rivonia Trial, represented families of apartheid victims before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and later worked through the LRC on landmark constitutional and public-interest litigation.

O’Regan’s selection therefore carries particular resonance: honouring another lawyer whose career has traversed both resistance to apartheid and the continuing work of building and protecting South Africa’s constitutional democracy.