March 28, 2006
By Emmanuel Mulaudzi
AS part of celebrations of the first decade of South Africa's Constitution, Constitution Hill and the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (Saifac) are holding a public discussion series.
Speakers will discuss issues that relate to human rights, religion, press freedom and other social issues. The series, which started on 14 March, will end on 25 April.
Constitution Hill, home of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, is a multi-million rand urban regeneration project funded by Gauteng's Blue IQ initiative, the City of Johannesburg, the Department of Justice and other philanthropic organisations, and delivered by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA).
The court was established in 1994 after South Africa's first democratic elections. Its role is to ensure that the government functions in terms of the Constitution.
"This series is an opportunity for the public to engage directly with prominent South Africans in conversations that provide insight into their lives, their roles and the contributions they have made to the rich fabric of South Africa," explained Cheryl Stevens, the programmes manager at Constitution Hill.
Among topics to be discussed are The Status of Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa, on 11 April; The Chapter 9 Institutions, on 18 April; and South Africa in Africa, on 25 April.
According to Professor Theunis Roux, the director of Saifac, at the session on socio-economic rights speakers will debate issues such as the roll-out of Nevirapine, the HIV/Aids medication, by the government.
The session on South Africa in Africa will look at the importance of the African Peer Review Mechanism, an initiative of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) to promote democracy, sustainable development, economic growth and good governance in African countries.
Chapter 9 institutions, to be discussed on 18 April, are those mandated in chapter nine of the Constitution; they include independent offices and organisations like the South African Human Rights Commission and the Auditor-General.
The series will also "touch on how the South African Bill of Rights relates to other African countries and make audiences conscious of their Constitutional rights", Roux adds.
According to Saifac's website, the organisation's primary objective is to promote advanced research in constitutional law and related disciplines by, among other things, assisting academics, judges, lawyers and post-graduate students from South Africa and other African countries to spend time working at the Constitutional Court library.
All the discussions in the series take place at Constitution Hill in the Temporary Exhibition Space at The Women's Jail, at 6pm for 6.30pm. A list of panellists is available on the Constitution Hill website.
For more information, contact Constitution Hill on 011 381 3100.
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