21 October 2013 - This past weekend, the Community Law Centre in partnership with the University of Western Cape Law Faculty hosted the sixth doctoral colloquium at the Atlantic Beach Hotel in Cape Town.
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Today the NCOP Select Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development in parliament met to consider the negotiating mandates from the provinces on the Traditional Courts Bill. It was a short meeting, it seems that the actual work took place behind closed doors prior to the meeting session.
This is the second issue of the ESR Review in 2013, which recognises and applauds the important role that the youth and women play in our country.
The Community Law Centre’s Socio-Economic Rights project released its “Compendium of documents and cases on the right to health under the African Human Rights System (September 2013)”.
Today the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development met to deliberate on the proposed law that will see courts being set up to deal exclusively with sexual offences matters like rape and child sexual abuse. Members of the Shukumisa campaign were sceptical about its potential to make a difference in rape prosecutions.
Constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia is primarily the responsibility of the House of Federation, Ethiopia’s upper house. In line with this, the Community Law Centre’s Multi-Level Government Initiative (MLGI) and the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy hosted a discussion on "Constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia" on the Tuesday 2 September.
Without strong civil society across sectors and interrogation of broader socio-economic policies, the promise of our constitution will remain outside of the grasp of most people.
Without strong civil society across sectors and interrogation of broader socio-economic policies, the promise of our constitution will remain outside of the grasp of most people.
The draft papers for the Constitution-Building in Africa Conference are now available on our interactive programme with the speakers bio's as well as the abstracts.
In most cases constitution making process cannot be completed without some involvement from judges. Have African judges so far realised the importance of building strong constitutional governance, Sofie Baker Djoumessi Kenfack, International Relations Institute of Cameroon questions? In her talk she looks at the responsibility of the judge in the development of constitutional governance in Africa.
Speakers at the Constitution-Building in Africa conference will also look at one of the youngest country in Africa, South Sudan. The conference which will take place this Friday is expected to attract people from across the continent. There will be over thirty presentation delivered at this conference centred around four themes; limiting the power of the state; designing state institutions that serve the country; how to achieve a democratic and inclusive process of constitution making; and making a constitution work.
In order to make the constitutional process more broadly inclusive, women and other vulnerable groups in the society should participate in this process. This is according to some speakers who are part of the International Conference on Constitution-Building in Africa on 6 September 2013.