Speaker details

Biography

Melissa Fourie is the Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Rights, a non-profit public interest environmental law organisation based in South Africa. Melissa holds a law degree from the University of Stellenbosch (1996), and an MSc in Environment & Development from the London School of Economics (2003). From 2005 to 2008, she was the Director: Enforcement at the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The Centre for Environmental Rights, of which Melissa has been the Executive Director since its establishment in 2010, has secured a number of groundbreaking court victories against big corporates and the state, and lead various campaigns aimed at realisation of environmental rights (www.cer.org.za).