News

Mr Mario Baatjies, Deputy Director of the Western Cape Department of Local Government delivered a guest lecture to the LLM/Mphil students in Multilevel Government.

On Monday 21 August, Mr Chris Nissen, Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission visited the Dullah Omar Institute. Commissioner Nissen and the Institute share a connection with the late Adv Dullah Omar as the two worked together intensively as activists. The meeting, attended by senior staff of the Institute, focused on how the two organisations can intensify their collaborative efforts towards achieving social justice.

Dr Tinashe Chigwata, a researcher with Applied Constitutional Studies Laboratory presented at the Local Government Investment Conference which was held at the Harare International Conference Centre from the 7th to 9th of August 2017. Dr Chigwata presented a paper titled: “Local government financing in Zimbabwe: (re)positioning local authorities as investment drivers”. He also chaired a session on promoting sustainable local economic development.

Yesterday, in commemoration of women’s month, the Socio-Economic Rights Project (SERP) convened a one-day Stakeholders Engagement Workshop on Involuntary Sterilisation of Women in South Africa as Gender-Based Violence.

As the Institute, we are gravely concerned about the state of democracy in South Africa. Our constitutional democracy, for which people like Dullah Omar fought so hard and made so many sacrifices, is under threat. At a time when South Africa needs a stable, functional and prosperous state, state institutions are being used to pursue interests that do not advance the cause of realising the rights in the Bill of Rights. On 7 August, the People's March, organised under #UniteBehind will demand that Parliament does what it is elected to do, namely hold the President to account. We call on all sectors of society to support this initiative and defend our constitutional democracy.

The Dullah Omar Institute hosted a session at the Public Interest Law Gathering 2017 engaging with questions regarding the interplay between the legislatures and the courts in SA. This panel was facilitated by the Dullah Omar Institute’s Samantha Waterhouse and the panelists were Nonhlanhla Chanza from Law Society of South Africa, Tshepo Motsepe from Equal Education and Prof Steven Friedman from University of Johannesburg.

This issue includes two feature articles that discuss various areas of socio-economic rights. It also contains updates on General Comments 3 and 4 of the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities relating to women and girls with disabilities and inclusive education.

ACJR participated in the 8th Annual Conference of the Pan African Lawyers Union Seminar focusing on Initiatives for the Decriminalisation and Declassification of Petty Offences in Africa held in Durban, South Africa from 5 – 8 July 2017.