Statement by the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights at the 63rd Ordinary Session in Banjul, the Gambia ( 24 October - 13 November 2018).
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The Dullah Omar Institute’s Children’s Rights Project has been admitted as an Amicus Curiae in a matter before the Constitutional Court concerning corporal punishment.
On 16 October 2018, Dr Tinashe Chigwata, launched his book titled “Provincial and Local Government Reform in Zimbabwe: An analysis of the Law, Policy and Practice”. The launch took place at the Local Government Investment Conference which took place this week in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
The Auditor General, Mr Kimi Makwetu presented a keynote address to the second Joint DOI-UCT seminar on 12 of October 2018. The seminar theme was “Building a Capable Developmental State: Enforcing public finance law and ethics” .
Kristen Petersen attended a UN Treaty Bodies Litigators’ Meeting in Geneva 2 - 4 October 2018, hosted by the Open Society Foundation – Justice Initiative (New York) and the Centre for Civil & Political Rights (Geneva).
On 26 September, the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape partnered with ASRI and the District Six Museum to convene a seminar on ‘Race’ and racism in post-millennial post-apartheid South Africa: unmaking the past, making the future. The seminar was chaired by Jaap de Visser, the Director of the Dullah Omar Institute and featured influential researchers and thought leaders on ‘race’ and racism.
On 26 September, the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape partnered with ASRI and the District Six Museum to convene a seminar on ‘Race’ and racism in post-millennial post-apartheid South Africa: unmaking the past, making the future. The seminar was chaired by Jaap de Visser, the Director of the Dullah Omar Institute and featured influential researchers and thought leaders on ‘race’ and racism.
The newly trained activist monitors from CSOs working with Women and Democracy Initiative’s (WDI) Parliament Watch and Putting the ‘People’ in People’s Parliament projects entered Parliament and the Western Cape Provincial Parliament.
Judge Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane has highlighted that inequality for women in the workplace, among other settings, is still prevalent in South Africa. Judge Kathree-Setiloane - the South Gauteng High Court judge who has presided over several high profile matters - has also warned that sexual harassment cases against women in the workplace are pervasive. There are judgments from the courts that have found that resignations as a result of sexual harassment does constitute unfair dismissal.
South Africa ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in January 2015. As required by the ICESCR, the South African government submitted its initial report to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in April 2017.
Together with an independent researcher and Lawyers for Human rights, Women and Democracy Initiative submitted 12 Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications to political parties, most provincial legislatures and Parliament.
The Sixth Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA) 2018, jointly organised by the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (ICLA) of the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in partnership with the South African Research Chair (SARChI) on Multilevel Government, Law and Policy at Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Rule of Law Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Kenya. from 4-6 September 2018. The theme for the seminar was Democracy, elections and constitutionalism in Africa.
Three students who graduated with a Masters in Multilevel Government and Local Government yesterday, thanked the Dullah Omar Institute for giving them the opportunity to pursue the high level course.
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Hon Michael Masutha has appointed the Director of the Dullah Omar Institute, Prof Jaap de Visser, as a member of the advisory committee of the South African Law Reform Commission.
The issue of student hunger on university campuses has gained prominence in light of the #feesmustfall movement that has encapsulated South Africa tertiary institutions since 2015. While there are no tangible statistics that reflect the scope of the problem, the issue of students lacking basic needs, both food and shelter, has gained significant traction among university administrators.
The SARChI in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy organised a policy dialogue to interrogate Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections of July 2018. The policy dialogue which took place on 14 August 2018 at the School of Public Health (UWC) interrogated several questions relating to both the electoral process and outcome.
Topic: The Zimbabwe Elections of July 2018 “A missed opportunity or the defining moment of the second republic”
08 August 2018 - The provincial legislatures oversee and make the law. But when it comes to sexual harassment they seem to think they do not need the law. The #NotOurLeaders campaign has written repeatedly to all nine provincial legislatures and our four largest political parties requesting copies of their sexual harassment policies. To date, we have only received copies of two sexual harassment policies.
The Dullah Omar Institute is delighted to announce that, three LLM/MPhil in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa, students from Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria joined the institute. The students will be doing their internship at the institute until December.
The Dullah Omar Institute visited Someleze Education Centre, a crèche in Wallacedene, as part of the Institute’s Mandela Day initiatives.
The Dullah Omar Institute is delighted to announce that the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, Honourable Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor is set to deliver the 12th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture on 09 October 2018.
45% of councillors in South Africa fear violence, 25% are pressurised around tenders and 32% prefer ‘getting this done’ over consultation. These were some of the statistics discussed during the seminar on “Voice and Accountability: What Councillors Say”, hosted by the Dullah Omar Institute, in collaboration with the South African Local Government Association.
The Socio Economic Rights Project (SERP) in conjunction with the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN), held a colloquium on the role of regional/sub-regional human rights bodies in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa, from the 28 – 29 June 2018.
ACSL uses computational methods to model how governments can improve their performance, accountability and services to promote social justice. The Municipal Audit Consistency Barometer (MAC-B) is a tool to measure consistency in municipal compliance with national audit standards over a five year period.
The Women and Democracy Initiative (WDI) identifies as feminist, challenging systemic power, patriarchal norms and pervasive misogyny. We take an informed position to challenge the social system and dominant narratives that colluded with people accused of sexual misconduct and abuses of power and silence those who seek justice and protection.
The Dullah Omar Institute (DOI), University of the Western Cape, participated in the 62nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission, held inNouakchott, Mauritania, from 25th April to 9th May 2018. DOI’s Statement to the Commission centred on the need to empower National Human Rights Institutions in African States with the enabling environment and resources to engender the protection of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Africa.
Prof Jaap de Visser was invited by the Forum of Federations to be part of an engagement, on 11 and 12 May 2018, between international experts and the Philippines Consultative Committee to review the Constitution of the Philippines.
The Ugandan government is undergoing a legal process to reform the law, policy and practices related to four key areas of land, namely: land acquisition, land administration, land management and land registration.
Please join us in celebrating and honouring the life and contribution of Dr Zola Skweyiya, a former colleague at the University of the Western Cape and a former minister in the South African government. Dr Skweyiya joined UWC in 1990 after returning to South Africa from political exile where he worked with Adv Dullah Omar in the newly established Community Law Centre based in the Law Faculty.
The Dullah Omar Institute has noted with great sadness the passing of Dr Skweyiya, one of the founding members of the Institute (formerly the Community Law Centre). Dr Skweyiya fully represented the unwavering commitment to justice and the protection of the marginalised that characterised the generation of leaders that helped usher in democracy and went on to serve South Africa with great distinction.