By KAREN MILLER
Hard questions are what occupy much of Rebecca Gore’s search for solutions to humanity’s pressing predicaments.
They are questions about prisons and rehabilitation, about women whose lives have been shaped by violence and poverty, and about what happens when societies stop seeing the humanity of the people on the margins. These questions have found expression in the recently launched Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa, the book she co-authored with Justice Edwin Cameron and Sohela Surajpal. They have appeared as well as in her academic writing on subjects ranging from abortion rights in prison, and women who kill their abusers, to the menstruation needs of women behind bars. They have also set her on the path to becoming an advocate: she was admitted to the Cape Bar earlier this year.
“Chutzpah” is the word she uses when speaking about these hard questions and “not being comfortable with the status quo”, especially when it deprives people of human dignity. For her it is one of the values Judaism has given her: not simply audacity, but the willingness to challenge accepted assumptions. It is also a phrase that captures much of the work she has chosen to do.
Rebecca considers this particularly Jewish quality as central to who she is and the values she follows. She speaks of being inspired by strong Jewish women throughout history and of being raised with the importance of making a positive impact in the world. Her grandparents have been a strong influence, especially her paternal grandmother, whose commitment to lifelong learning, embracing eccentricities and taking ownership of one’s life continues to inspire her.
Law itself was not however Rebecca’s first choice. She began by studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at UCT, and being interested in social impact and justice long before she contemplated a legal career. An internship at the Legal Resources Centre and studying Transitional Justice drew her increasingly towards the law and the possibilities it offered. Her arrival as an advocate is the culmination of years of public interest work and academic research, including a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School.
Her greatest inspiration in the law is Justice Edwin Cameron, who has consistently taken on seemingly insurmountable social challenges. Rebecca had the opportunity to clerk for Justice Cameron at the Constitutional Court and then was his legal researcher at the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS), the national prison oversight body.
Working in prison oversight during the height of the Covid pandemic took Rebecca into both men’s and women’s prisons throughout South Africa. Here she encountered overcrowded cells built for thirty, accommodating sixty inmates; inmates in prolonged solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions and neglect. She continued to reflect on the humanity and context of the range of people she encountered.
One memory has remained particularly vivid. Observing long queues of dejected people waiting to be processed before entering prison, dressed in their everyday clothes, she was reminded of the dehumanisation Jews have suffered over a long arc of history. She acknowledges the markedly different context, but the power of the image remains significant for her. It raises questions about how societies treat collective groups of people and what oppressive actions become possible when people are labelled and treated as less than human.
Her work has increasingly focused on women in prison. “What women experience in prison is a microcosm of what they experience in life”. Women inmates have lives shaped by violence, poverty and abuse. Some have engaged in sex work; some have acted as drug mules; and others have stolen food for their children. Women’s prisons have too often been designed around men’s experiences and fail to recognise women’s particular needs. A prison nurse once told her that women simply “become numb” with incarceration.
Alongside these stories are others that resist easy categorisation. She recalls meeting a thoughtful and ambitious woman imprisoned for murdering her abuser who was studying law through Unisa while serving her sentence. Women’s rights remain at the forefront of much of her thinking about prison reform.
The law that attracts Rebecca is not confined to the courtroom though she is drawn to the role of the advocate, to argumentation, the challenge of difficult cases and the necessary research that follows. She is equally committed to creating spaces in which difficult issues can be discussed openly. While many more women are entering the profession, she believes obstacles remain and that mentorship remains key.
Rebecca enjoys long-distance running and, as a personal challenge, takes part in a marathon each year. Running is an opportunity to switch off, to explore her surroundings, and to think about perplexing issues. She loves books and films and describes herself, in a family of ‘numbers’ people, as the ‘word’ person. There is something wonderfully apt about that description. Words matter to lawyers, but so too do the questions that sit behind them.
Perhaps that is what most distinguishes this young advocate. In a profession often associated with certainty, Rebecca Gore remains interested in uncertainty, in asking the hard questions and accepting the ambivalence of many of the answers. She reminds us that justice is not merely about winning arguments or applying legal principles. It is about willingness to see the essential humanity in all people.
Rebecca Gore’s papers and articles:
