The NWU cordially invites you to the Annual NWU Lecture on Academic Freedom 2022, presented by Professor David J. McQuoid-Mason.
Teaching Human Rights in a Hostile Environment: The Role of the University – Some Lessons from the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa.
Abstract
Teaching Human Rights in a Hostile Environment: The Role of the University – Some Lessons from the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa
Teaching human rights in a hostile environment is a major challenge for human rights educators. During one of the most repressive periods of apartheid South Africa, in the mid-1980s when States of Emergency were regularly declared and thousands of political activists were detained, I introduced a disguised human rights education programme called ‘Street law’ to thousands of high school pupils, university students and other members of the community. I was Dean of Law at the then University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal), where there was sufficient academic freedom to enable me to introduce such a programme. The programme was presented in an ostensibly neutral manner and was supported by influential members of the legal fraternity and educational departments. As a result, we were able to run workshops for ordinary citizens, opponents of the apartheid regime, and the apartheid authorities themselves. In 1990 after Nelson Mandela was released, we engage in human rights education more openly.
A number of other strategies were also devised during the States of Emergency to teach about human rights to both opponents of the apartheid regime, and the security forces themselves, particularly during public protests and professional legal and medical meetings, in a manner that conformed with the legal constraints of the time. The lesson learnt from the South African experience under apartheid was that provided creative methods are used, human rights can be taught in the most hostile of environments. Law faculties in universities that allow a sufficient degree of academic freedom, can play a valuable role during such times by providing a protective shield for human rights education activities by their members of staff or non-governmental bodies affiliated to them.
Previous Years' Lectures
PROFESSOR DAVID J McQUOID-MASON
Professor David J. McQuoid-Mason is employed at the Centre for Socio-Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and President of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) involving over 3 000 law schools in the Commonwealth. He has published more than 350 articles in law and medical journals. He has written two books, co-authored over 30 books and manuals on aspects of human rights, law and democracy; and medical law and ethics. He established South Africa’s third law clinic in 1973 and the country’s first Street Law programme in 1976, at the then University of Natal. Since then he has helped to develop law clinics in over 60 countries and set up Street Law programmes in over 45 countries. He has contributed more than 80 chapters to books, and delivered over 350 papers at national and international conferences. He has been honoured by UNESCO for his work in human rights education, and has been awarded DCL degrees (honoris causa) by the Universities of Windsor, Canada and Northumbria, England, for his access to justice and clinical legal education work around the world.
Kindly contact Prof. Klaus D. Beiter from the School of Law:
Tel: (018) 299 1957