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The Centre was established in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, in 1986, as part of domestic efforts against the apartheid system of the time.
Members of the Centre participated in meetings with the liberation movements outside the borders of South Africa, organised conferences and participated in efforts to promote human rights in South Africa, and, when the transition came, served as technical advisors to both the interim and final constitution writing processes.
To celebrate the last 25 years of human rights activism and education, a series of lectures and other activities will be presented by the Centre for Human Rights.
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Conference on Multi- and Inter-disciplinary Human Rights in Africa: 2 - 3 June 2011
 Download the Call for Papers for this Conference
Download the programme for this Conference
Presenters, Abstracts and Papers
- Rebecca Wright
Developing narratives for revolutionary change: The role of testimony and life - writing in the recent North African uprisings
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- Aishah Namukasa
Demystifying human rights: A socio-legal approach to the political framing of migrant workers’ rights in Africa
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- Shimelis Tsegaye Tesemma
Public sensitization as an alternative to legal proscription of harmful traditional practices: The case of female genital cutting
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- Elaine Salo and Rehena Vally
Culture rights and sexual minorities in Africa: A review of anthropological and minority rights literature
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- Joseph Mlenga
How sociology enriches human rights: Case study of Malawi’s first gay couple
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- Elvis Fokala Mukumu
The relevance of a multidisciplinary interpretation of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights: A focus on article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa
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- Mesenbet Assefa
The role of a new conception of development in enriching the human rights discourse
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- Ben KirombaTwinomugisha
Beyond Legal Approaches: What role can social science perspectives play in the protection of the right to health?
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- Kofi Quashigah
Economics and human rights: A necessary symbiosis
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- Kristi Kenyon
Reasons for rights: A qualitative approach to rights use among HIV advocacy groups
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- Nomonde V. Sibawu
Do the dead constitute and equal rights? Exploring heritage and law in pot apartheid era in South Africa
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- SH Rossouw
The inquest as human right: The case of Steve Biko
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- Chikosa Mozesi Silungwe
The right to property in land: The folly of the ‘language of conferment’ in human rights discourse
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- Onuora-Oguno Azubike and Onuora-Oguno Nnamdi Chiedu
Censor the minstrel, cage human rights. A case for the actualization of human rights through music in Igboland, Nigeria
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- Annette Van der Merwe
Justice ‘beyond’ the law in The secret in its eyes
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- Jennifer Muchiri
Literature and human rights: The case of ChimamandaAdichie’s fiction
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- Humphrey M. Sipalla and Kenneth Karest Lewela
Policed perceptions, masked realities: Human rights and law enforcement in Kenyan popular art
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- Cori Wielenga
Narrative research and human rights: A case study of Rwanda
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- Gus Waschefort
The role of photojournalism in promoting social change in a human rights oriented society
- Chongo Chitupila
The right to education as a basis for human rights education: An interface between human rights and education
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- Michelo Hansungule
Teaching multidisciplinary human rights
- Rushiella Songca
Theorising children’s rights as a multi and inter disciplinary field of study
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- Miguel Angel Martin Lopez
New challenges in the right to food for Africa
Overview of the Conference:
On 2 - 3 June 2001 the Centre for Human Rights hosted a two-day conference on Multi- and Inter-Disciplinary Human Rights in Africa, organised and co-chaired by Centre Director, Professor Frans Viljoen, and Visiting Fulbright Scholar, Professor Richard Maiman. The purpose of the conference was to showcase scholarship on human rights using perspectives other than the dominant legal paradigm.
The keynote address was given by Professor Michael Freeman, a distinguished human rights scholar affiliated with the Department of Government at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Professor Freeman is the author of the pathbreaking book, Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary Approach, which recently was published in a revised second edition by Polity Press. Twenty-two scholars from Africa, Canada, and Europe presented papers that drew on a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives, including political science, sociology, history, anthropology, literature, education, film studies, and musicology. According to Professor Maiman, “The conference was successful in demonstrating many of the ways in which traditional legal analysis of human rights issues can be complemented and extended through the use of multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches. Judging by the enthusiasm of the participants, it provided an effective forum for presenting and exchanging ideas. We hope and expect that it will stimulate more of the high quality work that was represented in the papers.”
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About the Conference:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agreed upon in 1948, spearheaded a turn towards both human rights and human rights law. Subsequent standard-setting developments were characterised by the adoption of legally binding treaties at the global and regional levels; and of justiciable bills of rights in constitutions and enforceable anti-discrimination legislation at the national level. These predominantly legal frameworks were supported by an institutional network of human rights expert bodies and human rights lawyers. Numerous academic courses and programmes on human rights were developed, but mostly focused on law students and the legal dimensions of human rights. In short, the human rights discourse that emerged since 1948 came to be dominated by legal perspectives.
In more recent times, the dominance of the legal approach to human rights has increasingly been questioned. An emerging view is that a legalistic perspective on human rights is too limiting and that both in academic and practical approaches to human rights, much stands to be gained by utilising multi- and inter-disciplinary perspectives. Disciplines that come to mind include: anthropology, cultural studies, economics, education, history, international relations/ international politics, literature, media studies, political science/ government, sociology and theatre/drama.
However, the teaching and practice of human rights law from a legalistic perspective is still dominant, particularly in most of Africa.
A Conference will therefore be held to provide an opportunity for academics to ponder and reflect on the benefits that other disciplines bring to the theory and practice of human rights. Although the possible range of ‘other disciplines’ may extend as far as the sciences and medicine, this Conference will focus on the social sciences and humanities.
The Conference will focus on two main sub-themes, and papers on each of these are invited:
- The benefits or insights that specific disciplines may bring to human rights and human rights law (the need and advantages of going beyond the legalistic discourse on human rights, by showing how other disciplines may enrich this discourse)
- Examples (case studies) of multi- and inter-disciplinary work on human rights law, with particular focus on the methodological approaches utilised
This Conference will coincide with the 25-year commemoration of the Centre for Human Rights, and marks a shift also in the approach of the Centre towards a more multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to human rights.
The Conference will benefit from the presence at the Centre in 2011 of Prof Richard Maiman, an American political scientist and Fulbright Scholar. The financial support of UPEACE assists us in hosting this conference.
25 Years Public Lecture Series
- Seminar on Language Rights
A seminar with a particular focus on the for an act on the use of official languages in South Africa.The presenters: Prof Fernand de Varennes, Murdoch University, Australia, Prof Theodorus du Plessis, University of the Free State, and a representative of the Pan South African Language Board.
Date: Monday 14 February 2011
Time: 12:30 - 14:00
Venue: Moot Court, Room 1-51, Ground floor, Law Building, University of Pretoria
Click here to download the electronic invitation
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