Press Release

Mrs. Raksha Semnarayan, Esq., recently joined the ICHRRF Executive Team as Director of Outreach for South Africa. She had earlier worked with ICHRRF and presented a lecture on the human rights situation in South Africa. She comes to us with extensive legal and constitutional experience in South Africa.

Raksha Singh Semnarayan is an Admitted Attorney In the High Court of South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, Bachelor of Laws, Masters of Law and Masters of Business Administration degrees. She was passionate about human rights since her youth and made submissions to the Constitutional Assembly which was tasked with drafting the first democratic Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Raksha’s submissions were on behalf of various religious and social justice organizations and advocated for the Constitution to uphold religious freedom and other human rights; to not create one religion superior to others; to create Statutory Bodies that protected religious and human rights and freedom and other similar issues. In recognition for her contribution, Raksha was invited to the inauguration of the Constitution Ceremony in Parliament in 1996 Most of her input was accepted and included in the Constitution.

During her career Raksha has made presentations and submissions on behalf of the government and other bodies before Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, the international Financial Action Task Force, and international seminars, etc. on various regulatory and legal issues.

Raksha served as head of Regulatory in the South African Reserve Bank and Chief Legal officer for BankservAfrica amongst other positions.

Raksha currently continues to advocate for social justice and religious freedom through serving on various Non governmental organizations and making representations to regulatory bodies, media and other bodies

Besides being the Honorary Director of Outreach for South Africa, She will be working on a research project on "Human Rights, Gender violence and Religious Tolerance and Freedom in South Africa".