Short Bio
Elsabé is a Postdoctoral researcher in the Cluster of Excellence “Transforming Human Rights”. Her research project focuses on how courts at different levels in Africa adjudicate climate and environmental justice cases. She held a position as PhD researcher at the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, University of Oslo, from 2021 to April 2026, where she investigated the legal recognition, and pathways towards operationalizing, a right to sustainable development in Africa. Elsabé previously worked as a technical assistant with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and holds an LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (cum laude) from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. She has participated as invited expert in activities of the African Commission and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. She is assistant editor of the African Human Rights Law Journal. She has an interest in issues related to human rights and the environment broadly, including climate change, sustainable development, extractive industries and regional/national courts, focused primarily on Africa.
The research project “Judicial Strategy in African courts amid Planetary Environmental Crises” investigates whether courts at national and supranational level in Africa respond “audaciously” or “forbearingly” to human rights complaints concerning climate change and socio-ecological violations. It seeks to answer the question: What are the circumstances and factors that contribute to progressively audacious climate/environmental justice rulings in Africa, and should courts act more audaciously? Methodologically, the study combines doctrinal legal analysis with social science methods in an interdisciplinary approach, engaging with empirical and moral/strategic questions. The study has a broader relevance for reflecting on when and how courts do/should navigate backlash to contribute to systemic societal transformation. She will also be involved in collaborative projects with colleagues across the Cluster and beyond, specifically in the Megatrends on Planetary Environmental Crises and Fragmented Economic Globalization.
- E Boshoff & SG Damtew “Can Africa Still Drill?: What the ICJ Climate Opinion Means for Oil and Gas Exploration in Africa” in Maria Antonia Tigre et al (eds.) The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (2025) Verfassungsbooks 233-248. Tigre-Bonnemann-DeSpiegeleir_TheICJsAdvisoryOpinionOnClimateChange_2025.pdf
- E Boshoff ‘The prospects and challenges of litigating climate change before the African Regional Human Rights bodies’ in K Bouwer et al (eds.) Climate Litigation and Justice in Africa (2024) Bristol University Press, 125-152.
- E Boshoff & S Getaneh ‘The potential of litigating children’s rights in the climate crisis before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’ (2022) 22 African Human Rights Law Journal 328-361. The potential of litigating children’s rights in the climate crisis before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child – African Human Rights Law Journal (AHRLJ)
- E Boshoff ‘Rethinking the premises underlying the right to development in African human rights jurisprudence’ (2021) Review of European, Comparative, and International Environmental Law (RECIEL) 1–11 https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12423.
- M Addaney, E Boshoff & MG Nyarko ‘Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources during Armed Conflicts in Africa’ (2019) 3 Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 85–115 https://doi.org/10.1163/24686042-12340036.