Row 1 left to right: Justice Remmy Kasule (Uganda),  Judge Regina Mtembei Rweyemamu (Tanzania), Judge Zak Yacoob and the wife, Justice Abdallah Salum Massati (Tanzania) 
Row 2 left to right: Lady Justice Percy Night Tuhaise (Uganda), Justice Elisa Samuel (Mozambique), Justice Anneth Grispos(Mozambique), Judge Musi Cagney(South Africa), Judge Sulet Potterill (South Africa)
Row 3 left to right: Court President Phetsolo Nare (Botswana), Magistrate Joseph Chigona (Malawi)

Judges from six countries (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) joined participants from another 20 African countries for a course on socio-economic rights, presented by the Centre for Human Rights from 6 to 10 May 2013. The aim of the course is to strengthen the capacity of judicial officers, lawyers and civil society actors, and to advance informed debate about the role of courts in realising socio-economic rights (and, thus, poverty alleviation).

The course is presented against the backdrop of the very recent entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on 5 May 2013. The Optional Protocol allows individuals to submit communications (cases) to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. South Africa is not yet a party to either the Covenant or the Protocol.

The course is taught by experts in the field, including retired South African Constitutional Court judge, Justice Zac Yacoob, and constitutional experts Professor Sandy Liebenberg (from the University of Stellenbosch) and Professor Alicia Yamin (from Harvard University).

The course forms part of the Global School on Socio-Economic Rights, and is a collaboration between the Centre for Human Rights and six other institutions: the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights; the Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, Finland; the Chair in Human Rights, University of Stellenbosch; the University of Los Andes, Colombia; the National Judicial Academy, Nepal; and the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Centre for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, USA.

Over the year, the Centre presents ten such one-week intensive courses. Scholarships are available. For more information about these courses, consult the Centre’s website, http://www.chr.up.ac.za/advanced-human-rights-courses/about-ahrc