Community Law Centre becomes Dullah Omar Institute!

After 25 years of realising the democratic values and human rights through engaged research, teaching and advocacy, the Community Law Centre will convert into an institute. On 19 August 2015, when it celebrate its 25th Anniversary it will assume a new name Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights, after its founding director.

The Community Law Centre was borne out of the struggles of the 1980s. It opened its doors at the University of the Western Cape in 1990. Adv Dullah Omar, a human rights lawyer, was its first director. The Centre played a major role in the negotiations towards the future of a democratic South Africa. The centre has been supporting processes in South Africa and the region to build inclusive, resilient states that are accountable to citizens and responsive to human rights. The Centre works in five areas, namely children’s rights, socio-economic rights, multilevel government, criminal justice reform and parliamentary democracy.

First staff members included luminaries such as Bulelani Ngcuka, Dr Zola Skweyiya, and Brigitte Mabandla. Working closely together with Albie Sachs and Prof Kader Asmal they participated in the constitutional negotiations towards the new South Africa. Ever since its inception, the Centre has been a major contributor to policy formulation for South Africa’s constitutional order and increasingly, elsewhere on the continent.

On the day the centre will also host the 10th edition of the Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture.