Today the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services was briefed by the Department on an amendment bill to the Sexual Offences Act, which deals with the issues of consenting sexual activity between adolescents and with the placing of the names of child offenders on the National Register for Sex Offenders.
Children’s Rights Project head at the Community Law Centre, Prof Benyam Dawit Mezmur, is one of the 18 independent experts that took part in the 68th Session of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child held in Geneva in January 2015, where he serves as a Vice-Chairperson.
South Africa’s Ratification Campaign of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and its Optional Protocol welcomes South Africa’s ratification of the ICESCR on 12 January 2015. As stipulated in section 27(2) of the ICESCR, it will come into force for South Africa on 12 April 2015, which is three months after the deposit of the instrument of ratification.
The Parliamentary Programme at the Community Law Centre hosted a civil society meeting to discuss the state reporting process of the South African Government and civil society before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The Children’s Rights Project is happy to announce that the last issue of Article 40 in 2014, is now available.
This third and last edition of the ESR Review this year (Volume 15, No 3 2014) includes two feature articles on the enjoyment of socioeconomic rights.
An exciting opportunity has opened up at the Community Law Centre, the Law Faculty’s research and advocacy unit. We are offering a bursary to study towards an LLM or an MPhil in Law, State and Multilevel Government.
Last week, the Community Law Centre hosted this Colloquium on Poverty and Human Rights in Africa to share evidence-based knowledge and experience on how human rights violations drive and deepen poverty in Africa.
Community Law Centre’s Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative in partnership with the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) which promotes civil society participation at the UN Human Rights Committee hosted a one day workshop to prepare a consolidated report prior to the adoption of the List of Issues.
Last week, the Community Law Centre hosted a lunch-time seminar where the role of electoral commissions in developing countries was unpacked. The key speakers at this event where Rev Courtney Sampson Provincial Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission in the Western Cape and Prof Henk Kummeling the Chair of the Dutch Electoral Commission and a visiting professor at the Community Law Centre.
Maternal death remains a great challenge in many developing countries including South Africa. Despite the fact that South Africa is one of the most industrialised and prosperous countries in Africa, the government has been unable to address the high maternal and infant mortality rates in the country. In line with this, Community Law Centre, Department of public health of the University of the Western Cape and Amnesty International held a two day workshop on maternal health.
A Children’s rights researcher at the Community Law Centre has published a book titled: Understanding Kinship Care of Children in Africa. The book was published by Eleven International Publishing in Hague as the first instalment of the Comparative African Legal Studies Series and it focuses on contemporary issues in African development, with human rights as a backdrop.
The Eastern Cape advocacy workshop was held from 11 to 12 November 2014 in East London and was hosted by the Shukumisa Campaign and the Community Law Centre. The main purpose of the 2 day workshop was to develop collaborative advocacy strategies to respond to sexual violence on provincial level in the Eastern Cape. Participants consisted of individuals and representatives from various organisations and structures working with survivors of sexual violence from across the province.
Children’s Rights researcher at the Community Law Centre, Dr Aquinaldo Mandlate attended a workshop on the possibility of establishment of a child rights unit in Mozambique, as part of experts who trained Mozambican National Human Rights Commission.
"Reflecting on 20 years of Local Government" was the title of a presentation by Jaap de Visser to a conference on Local Government, organised by the Democracy Development Programme (DDP) in Durban on 20 October 2014.
The judiciary in Kenya is increasingly called upon to resolve disputes about devolution. Last week, the Kenyan Judiciary Training Institute (JTI) organised a four day training programme on devolution for members of the judiciary. The training was organised in collaboration with the Katiba Institute.
It is essential that DOJCS collaborate and partner with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that provide services to survivors to promote victim support at all stages of the justice system. This is according to Samantha Waterhouse, the project head of the Parliamentary Programme at the Community Law Centre when giving comments to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJCD), NPA Annual Reports and the DoJCD Annual Performance Report on Sexual Offences 2013/14.
On 15 October 2014 the Socio-Economic Rights Project of the Community Law Centre made a submission before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health. The Community Law Centre, which is part of the civil society Budget Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF) made a written and oral submission on the National Department of Health's Annual Report 2013/14, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Amnesty International.
The Community Law Centre is delighted to announce that it will be hosting Prof Henk Kummeling, the outgoing Dean of the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance at Utrecht University (Netherlands) and Extraordinary Professor at the Law Faculty. He will be joining the centre from 15 October 2014 to 11 December 2015.
Yesterday, Professor Lukas Muntingh, the head of Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative at the Community Law Centre shared the lessons learnt and challenges of the Court Watching Brief Programme (Court Monitoring Project) during the Justice for Breakfast roundtable which took place at the University of the Western Cape.
Poverty, physical and sexual violence against children, were some of the key issues raised at the meeting between the South African government delegation and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) to examine South Africa’s Initial Country Report on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which took place in Ethiopia on 9 October.
Community Law Centre's 2013 Annual report is now available.
There has been a gradual but consistent improvement in municipal audit outcomes over the past five financial years (2008/09-2012/13), but notwithstanding national government’s new and more realistic strategy to improving audit outcomes, local government may fall short of achieving the new targets for 2019 set by the new Minister.
A researcher for the Socio-Economic Rights Project at the Community Law Centre, Gladys Mirugi-Mukundi participated in the Lwandle Commission of Inquiry by way of presentation of a paper on mass evictions and illegal occupation of land. The paper titled: Evictions in South Africa: Relevant International Standards follows the submission made by Community Law Centre to the Lwandle Commission of Inquiry.
According to him, perhaps planning is the most important responsibility of local government. Yet, in many parts of the continent, local authorities conduct planning in terms of outdated colonial laws. These laws were written for post-war Europe and never designed to deal with specific challenges such as urbanisation, informality and environmental challenges.
Dr Aquinaldo Mandlate takes on the task of the Community Law Centre advocating for advancements in human rights in Africa. The researcher at the Children’s Rights Project of the Centre, last week, delivered expert contributions for participants attending the Oslo Diploma Course (ODC) on advanced Human Rights Training in Norway.
Community Law Centre’s researcher at the Multilevel Government Initiative Tinashe Chigwata presented on behalf of knowledge institutions at consultative workshops organised by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing in partnership with UNDP. The workshops were held from 27 to 28 August at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare.
Prof Lukas Muntingh and Gwen Dereymaeker went to Burundi from 18 to 20 August 2014 as part of the Article 5 Initiative activities. The Article 5 Initiative is a four-year project aimed at developing tools to monitor domestication of the UN Convention against Torture in 6 African countries.
Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative researchers Gwénaëlle Dereymaeker and Jean Redpath presented papers at the 2014 international conference on National and International Perspectives on Crime Reduction and Criminal Justice hosted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
On 11 August 2014, Prof Jaap de Visser, Director of the Community Law Centre presented a paper at the Financial and Fiscal Commission’s 20 Year Anniversary at the CTICC in Cape Town. The paper was co-authored by Dr Zemelak Ayele, post-doctoral researcher at the Centre.
