SANPUD’s Humanitarian Work Gains Visibility: Natalie Jacobs Brings Lived Experience Into Judicial and Justice‑Sector Spaces

Across SANPUD’s work, linkage officers form the core of our human‑rights response. They train community members to identify rights violations, document cases of stigma and discrimination, and support referrals when people face barriers to healthcare, safety, or justice. ​

Human‑Rights Work Led by Linkage Officers

​The quality and consistency of this work is reflected in the recognition SANPUD continues to receive from partners and in the calibre of the spaces where our insights are now being included. This foundation makes it possible for lived‑experience leadership to enter national and regional platforms with credibility and trust. 

SANPUD’s Presence in High‑Level Humanitarian and Justice Spaces

This month, SANPUD’s work became visible in a different kind of room. In Johannesburg, at the African Regional Judges Forum — a judicial network established in 2014 to help courts across the continent interpret laws in ways that protect health and human rights — Natalie Jacobs joined a session focused on how criminalisation affects access to healthcare. Her presence formed part of SANPUD’s ongoing effort to bring lived experience into spaces where legal decisions are shaped, so that judges can see how policing and criminalisation affect the everyday movement of people who use drugs.
The Forum highlighted how humanitarian principles — dignity, protection, and the reduction of harm — also apply in judicial and policy spaces, not only in community settings.​

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Grounding Judicial Conversations in Daily Life 

Natalie spoke from daily life, describing how fear shapes the routes people take to clinics, how discrimination inside healthcare settings pushes people away, and how routine policing near health facilities creates barriers long before any formal legal process begins. These details grounded the room in realities often absent from judicial dialogue. They also reflected SANPUD’s mandate: making lived experience visible in places where it is rarely heard, and ensuring that human‑rights protections are shaped by evidence from daily life. ​

Human Rights in Practice

Her contribution helped judges see how criminalisation produces health harms, not safety, and how supportive, non‑judgmental environments create the conditions for care. She emphasised that people who use drugs already have human rights, and that these rights must be recognised in the interpretation of laws, the design of services, and the everyday practice of justice. The Forum’s engagement with her insights signalled a growing recognition of lived‑experience leadership in humanitarian and justice spaces — a visibility SANPUD has been steadily building. ​

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Recognition From Justice‑Sector Partners

Natalie’s recent work is also being acknowledged beyond the Forum. As ProBono.Org Cape Town marks its 20th year of advancing access to justice, she has been invited to join their anniversary gathering. The invitation reflects the growing visibility of SANPUD’s lived‑experience leadership in justice‑sector spaces and the recognition of the role this work plays in shaping conversations about dignity, fairness, and human rights in South Africa.​​