GENEVA / BISSAU (21 February 2014) – United Nations Special Rapporteur Magdalena Sepúlveda will undertake an official visit to Guinea-Bissau from 24 February to 1 March 2014 to collect first-hand information on the situation of people living in extreme poverty and to assess the initiatives taken by the authorities to improve their situation.
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Prof Jaap de Visser, the director of the Community Law Centre and senior fellow of the centre’s Multilevel Government Initiative addressed a group of officials from Kenya on the topic of Integrated Development Planning (IDP). He outlined the background to IDP, the legal framework and also discussed some of the challenges in implementing this progressive and ambitious system.

Dr. Jan Erk, who is currently a visiting research fellow at the Community Law Centre, has just completed teaching a short seminar on post-conflict settlements and federalism to Ethiopian doctoral candidates and lecturers at the Institute of Peace and Security of Addis Ababa University.

Albie Sachs is set to deliver the Community Law Centre’s 9th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture on 25 March 2014. The Community Law Centre is pleased to announce the 9th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs.

Today, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities will commence with public hearings on the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality bill.

Prof Benyam Dawit Mezmur has been appointed associate professor as well as the head of the Children’s Rights Project at the Community Law Centre. Prof Mezmur who published a number of articles on children's rights in Africa and related topics is also research fellow based at the Centre.

Community Law Centre's Parliamentary Programme has delivered a submission to Parliament on women, children and people with disabilities on the women’s empowerment and gender equality bill.

On September 6, 2013 the University of the Western Cape's Community Law Centre hosted a conference on constitution-building in Cape Town. This conference was hosted in partnership with the Centre for Human Rights, the South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government Law and Policy. This conference was funded by the Ford Foundation.

The Community Law Centre has featured in two separate panel discussions during the on- going 17th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). The Conference with the theme Now More than Ever: Targeting Zero, holds from 7-11 December 2013 at the Convention Centre, Cape Town.

The staff of the Community Law Centre mourns the loss of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and extends its deepest sympathies to his wife and his family.

In this ESR Review, Courts, capacity and engagement: Lessons from Hlophe v City of Johannesburg, A Social Protection Floor for all: Indispensable for eradicating extreme poverty by 2030

Yesterday the Community Law Centre hosted a dinner for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) in Cape Town. This meet and greet session followed a two day workshop on the with the aim of discussing country reports on actions taken in follow-up to the 2012 Day of the African Child.