LAWA (African) Fellowship Program

Overview

The Leadership & Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship, where women’s rights lawyers from Africa earn a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Georgetown Law focusing on international women’s human rights, and then participate in a post-graduation summer legal internship experience before returning home to continue advancing women’s rights in their own countries.

Over 80 women’s human rights advocates from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe have participated in the LAWA Program, and we hope to include Fellows from additional countries in the future.

Duration of the Fellowship

The entire LAWA Fellowship Program is approximately 14 months long (from July of the first year through August of the following year), after which the LAWA Fellows return home to continue advocating for women’s rights in their own countries. The LAWA Program starts in July, when the Fellows attend the Georgetown Law Center’s Foundations of American Law and Legal Education course.

Benefits of the Fellowship

The LAWA Fellowship provides the tuition for the Foundations of American Law and Legal Education Course (a U.S. $5,000 benefit) and for the LL.M. degree (a U.S. $66,650 benefit) at the Georgetown University Law Center, as well as professional development training.

Candidates who are admitted to the LAWA Program must be prepared to cover the costs of all additional expenses (such as their visas, travel, housing, utilities, food, clothing, health insurance, books, etc.), and must be able to demonstrate to the U.S. Embassy for visa purposes that they have the funds available to cover those expenses (approximately $28,000).

For more information on the program: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/wlppfp/

The application is available here and due on Friday, January 19, 2024