South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR)

The South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR) is a peer-reviewed public law journal founded in 1985 by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and housed at the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand. The SAJHR describes itself as South Africa’s leading public law journal, publishing scholarship for a worldwide readership.

Registered name

South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR)

Type

Academic law journal (Wits School of Law and CALS)

Fields funded

LLM study in constitutional, human rights and justice-related law

Website

wits.ac.za

Email

kok.joey@gmail.com

Founded under apartheid

The SAJHR began in 1985, during the states of emergency of the late apartheid years, when CALS lawyers were using law to challenge apartheid. Since 1994, the journal has followed the development of South Africa’s Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Constitutional Court’s human rights judgments.

What the journal publishes

The SAJHR is dedicated to scholarship on human rights and justice-related law in South Africa, and accepts work on other countries where it has direct relevance to South Africa, with welcome contributions from Africa and the Global South. Editors consider human rights, legal philosophy, law and society, constitutional law, administrative law and public international law, including interdisciplinary and empirical work.

The journal appears four times a year and has been published by CALS and Taylor & Francis since January 2016, with discounted subscriptions for African institutions. Authors submit through the ScholarOne system, and Christopher Gevers is editor-in-chief.

The top-up bursary

The SAJHR’s postgraduate top-up bursary helps LLB graduates pursue LLM studies on constitutional, human rights or justice-related topics at South African public universities. The SAJHR’s bursary page describes once-off awards of R30 000, while BursariesAfrica’s refreshed guide found recent calls offering up to R50 000. As a top-up, the bursary supplements other funding rather than covering full costs, and the journal’s managing editor administers it directly.

Recent calls targeted black South African and other African LLB graduates with at least a 65% average, with preference for graduates of Fort Hare, Venda, Limpopo, Zululand, UWC and Walter Sisulu University. Past recipients include Abongile Nkamisa, a Walter Sisulu University graduate who did her articles at CALS, and Ofentse Ngobeni from Bela-Bela, studying human rights law at the University of Venda.

The bursary closed on 11 April in 2025 and 31 May in 2026.

How to research the SAJHR

Read recent SAJHR articles in your area of interest and cite one in your motivation. Email the managing editor between March and May 2027 to confirm the next call.

See our Law Bursaries list.