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LLB (AAU), LLM (UP)
Doctoral candidate
Merga Dibaba has been working for the last eight years in the area of promotion and protection of human rights, particularly disability rights, and children’s rights with different regional and national human rights organisations. He has worked with the African Committee of experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and Ethiopian Ministry of Justice. He holds LLM in human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria and LLB from Addis Ababa University. Currently Merga is undertaking doctoral study at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria where he is also working as a program coordinator.
Publication:
MY Dibaba ‘The implications of article 12 of the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities for the legal capacity of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in Ethiopia’ (2019) 7 African Disability Rights Yearbook 3-34
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Dr Dorcas Basimanyane is an accomplished international development lawyer with over a decade of experience. She is an admitted attorney, conveyancer, and notary public, with expertise spanning law, practice, academia, and project management.
She currently serves as the Project Manager of the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA) and heads the Business and Human Rights Unit at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. In addition, she is the Academic Project Coordinator for the International Trade and Investment Law (TILA) programme and a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Centre’s International Development Law Unit (IDLU).
Her professional and research interests lie at the intersection of technology law, development, and human rights, with a strong focus on corporate accountability, sustainable development, trade and investment and rights-based approaches to governance.
Tel +27 (0)12 420 6209
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Ruth Versfeld, BA Law (UP)
Ruth has been a Project Officer/ Litigation Assistant with the Litigation and Implementation Unit at the Centre for Human Rights since March 2023. Ruth started learning about legal human rights issues through the Christoff Heyns Moot competition where her team placed in the top 10. She has also been a part of the executive for Tuks for Climate Justice that helps to educate students about climate justice and promote climate justice projects in and around the University of Pretoria. Ruth has a keen interest in several fields of human rights and is particularly passionate about issues relating to climate justice. Ruth is currently also an LLB student at the University of Pretoria.
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
Ruth.Versfeld@up.ac.za
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Tholoana Mosia | Free State, South Africa
LLB (cum laude), University of the Free State, South Africa
Previous experience
Intern at the Centre for Human Rights
Academic fields of interest:
- Constitutional law
- Administrative law
- Human rights
- Socio-economic rights (specifically)
Position prior to the programme
Intern at the Centre for Human Rights (2022-present)
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Fellow: Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa
Academic Coordinator: RefLex Center for Advanced Studies, Humboldt University Berlin
PhD, LLM (German University of Administrative Sciences, MSc (London School of Economics and Political Science), First and Second State Examinations in Law (Munich and Berlin)
ORCID
johannes.socher@hu-berlin.de
Expertise:Comparative Constitutional Law, Public International Law, Transitional Justice, Rule of Law, Criminal Justice, European Law and German Public Law.
Links
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?authuser=1&user=H4IC3gEAAAAJ
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-socher
- BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jsocher.bsky.social
Select Publications:
Books
- Constitutionalisation of Political Parties and the State of Democracy, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2025 (co-edited with Charles Fombad), https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748963165.
- Russia and the Right to Self-Determination in the Post-Soviet Space, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192897176.001.0001.
- Praxis der Richtlinienumsetzung im Europäischen Verwaltungsverbund, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2020 (co-edited with Cristina Fraenkel-Haeberle and Karl-Peter Sommermann), https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58029-3.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
- Constitutionalisation of Political Parties, Multipartyism and Political Opposition in Anglophone Eastern Africa, World Comparative Law 57 (2024) 560–577, https://doi.org/10.5771/0506-7286-2024-4-560.
- Symbolic Popular Participation in Constitution-Making in Francophone Africa, African Journal of International and Comparative Law 32 (2024) 558–574 (with Charles Fombad), https://doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2024.0505.
- African Truth Commissions Addressing Colonial Legacies, in Pilisano Masake and Florian Jeßberger (eds), International Criminal Law and the Legacy of Colonialism: An African Perspective, Berlin: Humboldt University (2024) 105–124, https://doi.org/10.18452/31458.
- Assistance to Constitutional Courts in Fragile Contexts: The Case of Mali, 2017–2022, World Comparative Law 56 (2023) 241–256, https://doi.org/10.5771/0506-7286-2023-1-241.
- Enhancing Access to Justice through Donor-Led Legal Aid Initiatives: International Normative Framework, Practical Approaches, and Some Findings from the Field, Law and Development Review 15 (2022) 1–22, https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2021-0144.
- Farewell to the European Constitutional Tradition: The 2020 Russian Constitutional Amendments, Heidelberg Journal of International Law 80 (2020) 615–648, https://www.zaoerv.de/80_2020/80_2020_3_a_615_648.pdf.
- Lenin, (Just) Wars of National Liberation, and the Soviet Doctrine on the Use of Force, Journal of the History of International Law 19 (2017) 219–245, https://doi.org/10.1163/15718050-19231018.
Blog Posts
- Voting from Abroad Ahead of Germany’s 2025 Snap Election: Practical Challenges and Legal Implications of Non-Resident Voting from a Comparative Perspective, Verfassungsblog, 6 February 2025, https://verfassungsblog.de/ahead-of-germanys-2025-snap-election (with Raphaël Girard).
- Know Your Enemy and Know Yourself: On the Continuing Relevance of Analysing Russian Approaches to International Law, Völkerrechtsblog, 13 June 2024, https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/know-your-enemy-and-know-yourself/
- Farewell to the European Constitutional Tradition: The 2020 Russian Constitutional Amendments, Verfassungsblog, 2 July 2020, https://verfassungsblog.de/farewell-to-the-european-constitutional-tradition.
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Ntandoyenkosi Moyo | Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
LLB Bachelor of Laws Honours Degree. Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Previous experience
I have been a Lecturer in the Public Law Department at the Faculty of Law at Midlands State University, Lecturing International Humanitarian Law for two years. Also I have been both a motivational leadership speaker and moot court coach in Zimbabwe and at the University. I have one year experience as a practicing attorney in private practice in Zimbabwe, specializing in civil and criminal law litigation.
Academic fields of interest:
Public International Law, in particular International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law.
Position prior to the programme
Public Law Lecturer at Midlands State University and a Practicing Attorney in private practice.
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(LLB) University of Khartoum, (LLM) Trinity College, Dublin
Razan Ali is a doctoral candidate and the Alumni Coordinator at the Centre for Human Rights within the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria. She holds a law degree from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, as well as two Master of Laws (LLM) degrees: one in International and European Business Law from Trinity College Dublin, and another in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria. Razan has practical experience working in Sudan with the Norwegian Refugee Council and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Her academic and professional interests encompass Business and Human Rights, Trade and Investment, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, Conflict mitigation, and peace and Security issues.
Tel: +27 (0)12 420 4397
Razan.ali@up.ac.za
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LLB (UNIVEN), LLM (UNIVEN)
Mhuru Tapiwa Agripa acquired his LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Venda (UNIVEN). He is currently in pursuit of an LLD. He has passion for human rights advocacy through mooting activities and is also interested in the field of International criminal law; Elections and Good Governance.
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Lawyer and University Lecturer, Eduardo Mondlane University
PhD candidate in Human Rights at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in the area of Women's Human Rights and Labour Relations (African perspective). She has a master’s in international Trade Law from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2003).
She is Director of the Human Rights Programme/master’s degree in human Rights (Faculty of Law, Eduardo Mondlane University). She is a researcher with an interest in human rights in Africa, in particular women's rights, human rights and business, the right to health, access to information and the rights of people with disabilities.
She is currently a member of the National Bioethics Committee for Health (CNBSMozambique). She was Vice-President of the National Council of the Mozambican Bar Association (2020-2023).
She is a member of the African Universities Network of the Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa Programme (HRDA) in partnership with the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) since 2021. She is a member of ALDIS - Lusophone Association of Health Law (Coimbra). Since 2016, she has collaborated with the Ius Gentium Conimbrigae (IGC) - Human Rights Centre, University of Coimbra in the Postgraduate Programme in Human Rights and since 2021 with POSCOHR - Observatory of Human Rights (Portuguese Speaking Countries Observatory of Human Rights) in the Postgraduate Programme in Human Rights, Health and Justice.
She is the coordinator (Organizer) of the Human Rights Journal published by the Human Rights Centre at UEM. She is also a member of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) formerly known as AIPN and was recently appointed as a member of the Advisory Board of the Human Rights Centre of the Faculty of Law (University of Pretoria), South Africa.
