On 9 February, Prof Jaap de Visser, the director of Dullah Omar Institute, delivered a presentation duringva workshop organised by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The NCOP, as the house of Parliament that brings together nine provinces and organised local government, plays a critical, but often underestimated role. Prof De Visser discussed the role of the NCOP in the adoption of national legislation and its role in holding the national executive accountable.
On 27 January 2016, Dullah Omar Institute’s Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) unit hosted a civil society workshop aimed at compiling a shadow report to South Africa’s State Report and their response to the List of Issues on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (ICCPR) which was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee respectively on 26 November 2014 and 3 December 2015. The meeting was a great opportunity to co-ordinate the drafting of thematic shadow reports by identifying key issues to be addressed.
The Dullah Omar Institute in partnership with the Katiba Institute in Kenya published a book titled Kenyan-South African Dialogue on Devolution. This book includes South African and Kenyan chapters on the reasons for devolution; the levels, number, size and character of devolution units; the demarcation of devolution units; political structures; powers and functions; finances; metropolitan governance; intergovernmental relations; marginalised groups; and transitional arrangements.
The UN Human Rights Committee is the body mandated to oversee the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in states party to the Covenant.
On 20 January, the Dullah Omar Institute’s Women and Democracy Initiative organised a meeting for South African Alternate Report Coalition (SAARC) to agree on the main points for the presentation to the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). The meeting was followed by a smaller meeting of those who will be going to Geneva in February to introduce them to child participants.
Profs Nico Steytler and Jaap de Visser wrote comparative chapters for the recently published book by the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO), in collaboration with the Kenyan Judiciary Training Institute (JTI) and the Katiba Institute. The book unpacks the role of the Kenyan judiciary in implementing devolution.
Around 1000 prisoners were pardoned by the President during his State of the Nation address in December 2015. While these pardons offer temporary relief for the overburdened penitentiary system, implementation of more comprehensive measures, which form part of ongoing legal reform, will be necessary to effect real change.
Dr Aquinaldo Mandlate from the Children’s Rights Project of the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law and Governance (DOI) was last week in Mozambique to share the draft Model Law on Eradication of Child Marriages and Protection of Children in Marriage (draft Model Law). Mandlate shared the content of the draft Model Law in a national follow-up workshop on child marriage laws that was held in the Mozambique capital city of Maputo. The workshop was attended by a fairly large audience including members of Parliament, representatives of the Department of Justice, as well as delegates from the Department of Gender, Children and Social Action.
The work at the Dullah Omar Institute is done by researchers of national and international repute. Over the past few months, four of our researchers received academic accolades that bear testimony to the quality research conducted at the Institute. Dr Derek Powell was promoted by UWC to Associate Professor on the basis of his sterling record as a researcher championing interdisciplinary research. Prof Ebenezer Durojaye, Head of the Socio-Economic Rights Project was awarded a C2 rating by the National Research Foundation after a rigorous assessment. The C rating means that Prof Durojaye is an “established researchers with a sustained recent record of productivity in the field … recognised … as having produceda body of quality work”.
The Multilevel Government Initiative (MLGI) of the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights, University of the Western Cape is delighted to announce the publication of the Capable Cities Index: Performance. The Performance Index (PI) is the last of the three indices that collectively comprise the Capable Cities Index (CCI). The other two components, the Compliance (Coml) and Capacity (CI) Indices, were published earlier this year.
The Dullah Omar Institute is pleased to announce that a researcher with its Multilevel Government Initiative, Dr Tinashe Chigwata’s article titled "Decentralization in Africa and the Resilience of Traditional Authorities: Evaluating Zimbabwe's Track Record" has been published by the Journal 'Regional and Federal Studies'.
The Multilevel Government Initiative of the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights, University of the Western Cape is pleased to announce the publication of the Capable Cities Index: Compliance. The Compliance Index (ComI) is one of three indices that together comprise the Capable Cities Index (CCI).
