The University of Pretoria held a graduation ceremony for the Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. The ceremony took place at the Musaion on Friday 9 December 2011. All the 30 students who were admitted to the programme in 2011 completed the programme successfully. There were 15 women and 15 men. The students were drawn from 16 African countries.

Five students received prizes during the ceremony, these were:

• Ms Ivy Nyarang’o from Kenya who received the Nelson Mandela Prize which is awarded to the best overall performance in the course.
• The Keba M’baye Prize for the best dissertation was won by Ms Emma Lubaale from Uganda.
• The Ubuntu Prize for the students who displayed the values of humanity during the year was won by Mr Johannes Buabeng-Baidoo from Ghana.
• The Victor Dankwa Prize was jointly won by Ms Sylvie Namwase and Mr Victor Ayeni for being the best students in the module on Human Rights in Africa.

During the graduation ceremony four doctoral degrees were awarded, one of which was an honorary doctorate awarded to Advocate George Bizos a renowned South African human rights lawyer.

During his speech upon receiving the honorary doctorate, Advocate George Bizos, called for the need to refrain from blaming the courts or constitution when things wrong. He called on the executive to examine its laws and policies to ensure that they are constitutional rather to say that courts are siding with opposition elements.

The keynote speaker was Mr Ibrahim Wani, Chief of Africa Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He called on the students to be ready to sacrifice themselves in many ways as they went about their efforts to help the rest of the continent to realise human rights.

Other key persons who made remarks included Dr Ralf Hermann, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) representative in South Africa. DAAD has supported the programme since its inception in 2000 and partially supports up to 15 students on the programme every year. The main funder of the programme, the European Union, was represented by the Deputy Head of Mission of the European Union to South Africa, Mr Nils Jenson. Both representatives indicated that the programme continued to be important and encouraged students to continue committing themselves to the cause of human rights.

Mr Thulani Maseko from Swaziland received the Vera Chirwa Award. The award is given to a former student of the LLM programme who upon completion of the programme will have embodied the principles of the programme and made efforts to improve the lives of people in his/her country or the African continent as a whole. Mr Maseko was recognised for his efforts to bring democracy to Swaziland as a result of which he has faced incarceration. In his remarks upon receiving the award Mr Maseko indicated that he had dedicated his life to the betterment of the lives of the Swazi people and that he is aware that such efforts entail much sacrifice. He called for support of the cause of the Swazi people as they seek a democratic society.