On 31 August, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Chile, a project based at Diego Portales University in Chile, will launch a free online course on Transparency and Anti-Corruption. The course will deal with good governance issues, emphasising transparency and anti-corruption practices in the public domain.
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 is happy to announce that, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Honourable Tshililo Michael Masutha is set to deliver the 10th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture on 19 August 2015. The Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture Series celebrates the memory of the former Minister of Justice and the first director of the Community Law Centre, Adv Dullah Omar, who worked tirelessly towards, and achieved so much, in realising the goals of human rights and democracy.
After a very successful a 2-day Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) implementation course in Cape Town earlier this year, Community Law Centre’s Prof Jaap de Visser and African Centre for Cities’ Stephen Berrisford, are very happy to be presenting the course in Gauteng on 30 and 31 July 2015, at the Sunnyside Park Hotel.
Prof Jaap de Visser delivered the key note address at a Youth Summit organised by the Drakenstein Municipality. The Summit focused on the role of the youth in local government.
On 22 and 23 June 2015 the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) in conjunction with the Community Law Centre (CLC), University of the Western Cape organised a colloquium on Strategic Litigation on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa.
Community Law Centre’s Prof Jaap de Visser participated in the Commonwealth Local Government Forum's 20th Anniversary Conference in Gaborone, Botswana. He presented a paper at the Conference's Research Colloquium. His presentation was entitled "Lesotho's 2014 National Decentralisation Policy in comparative perspective". The paper examines the government of Lesotho's intention to deepen devolution in the Mountain Kingdom.
Shehaam Johnstone, a doctoral researcher with the Community Law Centre presented a paper on the intersection of multilevel government with food security Imperatives, during the 3rd annual conference on Critical Law and Governance Perspectives on Food Security in South Africa. The theme of the conference was “Exploring the Role of Policy-Makers and other Stakeholders.”
Community Law Centre’s researcher, Phindile Ntliziywana presented a paper at a roundtable organised by the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Parliamentary Liaison Office on 03 June 2015 in Cape Town. The roundtable was centred around discussions on local government, effective delivery and the devolution of power and the principle of subsidiarity.
Community Law Centre’s post-doctoral research fellow, Dr Tinashe Chigwata was awarded the prestigious fellowship at the Institute of Federalism Fribourg (IFF), University of Fribourg in Switzerland. IFF is one of the leading research institutions on federalism, decentralisation and conflict resolution.
The two young scholars from the University of Aix-Marseille, Manon Bonnet and Theo Fournier, who are being hosted by the Community Law Centre presented their research at a breakfast seminar on 4 June at the University of the Western Cape. The two have been conducting research at the centre on state-building, constitution-making and legitimacy as of the MA theses.
On 3 June 2015, the South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy, Prof Nico Steytler hosted a Policy Dialogue on “Constitution making and implementation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: Tunisia and Yemen” . The event took place at the Kader Asmal Moot Court, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape.
The Municipal Demarcation Board has the important task of demarcating South Africa’s municipalities. The South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy (Prof Nico Steytler), together with the Financial & Fiscal Commission (FFC) convened a colloquium to discuss recent proposals made by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) for amendments to municipal boundaries.
Community Law Centre’s Prof Benyam Mezmur who is also the head of the Children’s Rights Project was elected as chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child during its sixty-ninth session this week in Geneva.
Prof Jan Erk, who has strong ties with the Community Law Centre, is offering a free online course: Federalism & Decentralization: Evaluating Africa's Track Record with Leiden University. The course consists of 6 modules (each consisting of video-lectures and additional material). There are also a number of guest lectures on African case-studies. South Africa is one of the case-studies, Community Law Centre’s Prof Nico Steytler has a short guest-presentation in the duration of the course.
This issue of the ESR Review in 2015 issue includes an article by Usang Maria Assim that summarises South Africa’s initial report to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), reviewing South Africa’s progress towards the realisation of children’s socio-economic rights.
Prof Nico Steytler and Prof Jaap de Visser visited the School of Law of Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya.They were received by Dr Mutakha Kangu, Dean of the School of Law and former doctoral researcher with the SARChI Chair at the Community Law Centre.
Prof Nico Steytler and Prof Jaap de Visser addressed a group of Kenyan judges as part of a seminar, which was organised by Kenya’s Judiciary Training Institute in collaboration with the Katiba Institute (headed by Prof Yash Pal Ghai).
MLGI announces the release of the Capable Cities Index: The capacity of cities (by Dr DM Powell and M O’Donovan). The CCI is a composite index that ranks the 27 largest cities in South Africa on the basis of their consistency in maintaining high levels of capacity, performance and compliance over the period 2010 to 2014. A capable city is one that maintains consistently high scores in all three components of capability.
Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) is seeking to appoint a full-time researcher, on a one year contract which is renewable subject to availability of donor funding.
This week, the director of the Community Law Centre, Prof Jaap de Visser in collaboration with Prof Stephen Berrisford from the African Centre for Cities, taught a course on urban and regional planning. The course is designed to equip practitioners in the planning and legal professions, in private and government practice, to meet the challenges of implementing the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013 (SPLUMA).
Prof Henk Kummeling, was appointed distinguished professor of Utrecht University as of 1 April 2015. Kummeling is Extraordinary Professor at Community Law Centre.
In the past few weeks Civic Protest Barometer (CPB)has drawn significant attention from the media, civil society, and state bodies since its publication. This week Daily Maverick started doing a series of articles based on the barometer.
On Monday, Community Law Centre hosted a ‘brown bag seminar’ discussing, how the work of lawyers mends the postcolonial state. The seminar zeroed down to theoretical and methodological reflections based on legal ethnography in Zambia.
A researcher at the Community Law Centre, Dr Enoch Chilemba was invited to make a presentation at the Advanced Disability Rights Course held at the University of Pretoria, Centre for Human Rights from 9 to 13 March 2015. He presented on ‘The Implementation of Disability Rights in Malawi’.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with the United Nations Capital Development Fund appointed Prof Jaap De Visser to review Lesotho’s Local government Act. This is in line with the country’s efforts to bring its Local Government Act of 1997 in line with this policy.
Today, Community Law Centre hosted a lunchtime talk on police impunity, entitled: From Ficksburg to Ferguson, or Andries Tatane to Michael Brown: Challenges to police accountability in South Africa and the United States. The speakers were Prof Rodney Uphoff (University of Missouri) and Prof Lukas Muntingh and Gwen Dereymaeker (Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative).
Yesterday, Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice and Correctional Services started with day one of public hearings into the controversial amendments to the Sexual Offences Legislation that aim to decriminalise consenting sexual activity between teenagers in the same age group.
On 2 March 2015, Professor Ebenezer Durojaye, the project head of the socio-economic rights, was part of a delegation convined the Department of Women Affairs within the Presidency. This was for an interactive session with members of civil society groups and government departments regarding South Africa’s report to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Both the number of civic protests and the prevalence of violence increased in 2014. In 2007 just less than half the protests were associated with some violence, but in 2014 almost 80% of protests involved violence in some form.
