Charles Peter Abrahams

A proficient litigation and human rights lawyer with more than 20 years' experience, he specializes in complex litigation, ranging from civil and commercial to public interest, human rights and class action litigation. He acts as a consultant to numerous international civil society organizations in the area of business and human rights, sovereign debt and human rights and transitional justice. He is involved in foreign litigation against multinational corporations that violate gross human rights.Currently, he heads one of the largest class action litigation in South Africa against gold mining companies on behalf of current and former goldmine workers who suffer from silicosis and tuberculosis.He has served as an expert consultant to Professor John Ruggie, the former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights and expert consultant to Dr. Cephas Lumina, the United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights.He holds a Master of Laws LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University in The Netherlands. He has and continues to speak extensively on issues relating to transitional justice, business and human rights and the impact of sovereign debt on the full enjoyment of human rights.In 2013, he published 'Lessons from the South African Experience,' in Corporate Accountability in the Context of Transitional Justice. London: Routledge (2013).In 2012, he was awarded the Cape Law Society Human Rights Attorney of the Year. This followed on his 1999 award, being one of the first two recipients of the Nelson Mandela Scholarship Award offered by Leiden University and in 1998 he was the first recipient of the Eddie Quist Arcton Award for Visiting Scholars to Cloisters Chambers, London.Currently he is a board member of Christel House South Africa, a non-profit private school for previously disadvantaged children on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, established and primarily funded by philaphropist, Christel de Haan and of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation.He oversees the firm's dispute resolution, competition law and public interest and human rights departments.

Education:
LLB; LLM

Formal Admissions:
Admitted to the High Court as an attorney.

Admission Status:
Practicing Roll

Languages:
English, Afrikaans