46 In Their Capacity as Human Rights Defenders: Women manager of Katswe Sistahood, Shamuyarira is intimately involved in sexual reproductive rights campaigns with college students, young mothers and young professional women. Campaigns by Katswe Sistahood, such as the mini-skirt march to protest the harassment of women, have grabbed global attention. Shamuyarira, who started human rights work as a first year university student in 2002 after realising inequalities between male and female students, closely works with commercial sex workers to protect and promote their rights. Her line of work has often exposed her to negativity (she was once shunned by a boyfriend who fled after learning the nature of her work) and she constantly gets “advice” to stop helping sex workers. According to Shamuyarira “The work we do is deemed controversial because we are trying to break barriers. Sex is a taboo and we are breaking that taboo.” 4.8 Women’s/ Children’s rights activists Netty Musanhu is a women’s rights advocate. She is currently the Director of Musasa Project. Since the time she left university in 1999, Musanhu has known no work other than protecting and promoting human rights, having worked with Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association and Action Aid before joining Musasa Project in 2010. In most communities, Musasa Project is synonymous with women’s rights because of its spirited fight against domestic violence. Musanhu says an entire community suffers when women suffer domestic violence. The 40year-old’s work entails more that fighting domestic violence: she is actively helping rural and urban women access services such as counselling, legal aid, shelter and life skills. Musanhu spends a lot of her time “on the ground” in rural communities engaging women. Their stories have not only been a motivating factor but have helped her conduct effective, evidence-based advocacy. Her line of work doesn’t always bring friends in a patriarchal society, still uncomfortable with the concept of empowered women. “Some want to associate Musasa [Project] with breaking up marriages and influencing women to disrespect their husbands. We have to endure negative labels; being called dirty names every day for trying to empower women.” Her fightback strategy has been to engage community leaders within institutions such as churches and the traditional leadership who are often her foes; a strategy that has helped deepen the appreciation of women’s rights and empowerment. Slyvia Chirawu is a lawyer by training and the National Director of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WILSA). She is currently undertaking doctoral studies focusing on the impact of migration on family law in Zimbabwe. Chirawu is the deputy chairperson of the Anti-Domestic Violence Council of Zimbabwe and also sits on the Estate Administrators Council of Zimbabwe. Through her work Chirawu has focused on access to justice by indigent women by the provision of legal aid and services to such women. She has a passion for the rights of the marginalised in society and strives to enhance the rights of women through strategic impact litigation, such as the recent filing of a case before the Constitutional Court concerning a woman who was discriminated against on the basis of her HIV status. Chirawu has been involved in much work related to law reform and participated keenly in the promulgation of the Domestic Violence Act. In the constitutional reform process, she advocated for the inclusion of gender equality and women’s rights by providing constitutional literacy to communities. She also sat in the G20 group comprising civil society members and the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus that shadowed the process to ensure that gender and women’s rights were taken into account. Chirawu has contributed as an international expect on gender, women’s property and inheritance rights, access to justice and domestic violence. She has also travelled the world and presented papers on gender and