Structural Exclusion of Rape Complainants in South Africa’s Criminal Justice System

Jameelah Omar is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She has an LLB, LLM, and PhD in Law from UCT.Omar joined UCT as a Lecturer in 2015. Her research and teaching centres on Criminal Justice, specifically in the areas of Sexual Offences, Criminal Procedureand doctrinal Criminal Law. She also convenes and facilitates the UCT Law Community Service programme, which requires students to perform legally orientedvolunteer work as a degree requirement. Omar’s doctoral work focused on the rights of rape complainants within the structure of South Africa’s adversariallegal system. She is an associate member of the Centre for Law and Society at UCT where she heads the Sexual Violence programme, and she is a Trustee onthe Board for the Women’s Legal Centre Trust. She has appeared as an expert witness in court cases as an expert on sexual violence. Prior to joining UCT, shewas an attorney at the Centre of Legal Studies (CALS) based at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

• Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The concept of participation for complainants in the criminal justice system Chapter 3 Participation to further justice in the criminal process Chapter 4 The focus on rape complainants Chapter 5 Arguments against complainant participation Chapter 6 The structural exclusion of rape complainants in an adversarial system like South Africa Chapter 7 Current opportunities for participation: Law and policy in South Africa Chapter 8 Lessons from foreign and international jurisdictions Chapter 9 Proposals for increased complainant participation in South Africa Chapter 10 Conclusion