ABOUT

The Free State Centre for Human Rights is a critical, interdisciplinary, and contextually engaged research, advocacy, and legal-practice institution, focusing in its work on the relationship between human rights and transformation.

This relationship is approached from a critical perspective that recognises its double-handed nature; the fact that human rights, in whatever context, relate both positively and negatively to transformation, can both enable and hinder transformation.

Within the broad framework-concern with the relationship between human rights and transformation, the Centre’s work coalesces around three thematic focus areas: impoverishment; democracy; and identity. This means that the Centre’s work and its research community is interdisciplinary, drawing on a range of different disciplines and combining insights and wisdom from a variety of fields.

Although the Centre is primarily an academic research institution, its work is contextually engaged. Apart from its Research and Postgraduate Division, the Centre consists of an Advocacy Division that engages in transformation related human rights advocacy on the UFS campus and a Legal Services Division that operates as a Free State-focused public interest litigation unit in cooperation with the UFS Law Clinic.

All the Centre’s work is geographically located: research, advocacy, and litigation focus on issues on the UFS campuses, in Bloemfontein and in the Free State Province.

DIVISIONS

Research and Postgraduate

In terms of Research, the Free State Centre for Human Rights focuses on the relationship between human rights and transformation, from a critical, inter-disciplinary and contextually engaged framework. Read more.

Advocacy

The Advocacy Division promotes transformation through human rights education and advocacy on the UFS campuses and more broadly in the Free State Province, Lesotho, and South Africa. Read more.

Legal Services

The Legal Services Division is a human rights strategic litigation unit that litigates on behalf of clients on brief or as amicus curiae seeking the protection of human rights, social justice and transformation. Read more.

POSTGRADUATE TEACHING

Interdisciplinary Master of Human Rights

This coursework Master's programme is designed to accommodate students and professionals from various academic disciplines. With its mode of delivery online with no residency requirement, the programme can be completed part-time. Read more.

Master's Degree by Dissertation

The Free State Centre for Human Rights offers the Master’s Degree by Full Dissertation. The programme provides students with the relevant skills to work independently as well as under supervision. Read more.

LLD/PhD Programme

The Free State Centre offers a doctoral programme in Human Rights including LLD (Doctor of Laws) and PhD (Doctor of Philosophy). The former is dedicated to candidates with a law background while the latter is for those with background other than law. Read more.

LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS

BRAM FISCHER MEMORIAL LECTURE EXAMINES JUSTICE BEYON CONSTITUTIONAL PROMISES

15 October 2026 I Story Tshepo Tsotetsi I Photo Born2Shoot

As South Africa approaches three decades under its democratic Constitution, the question of how far the country has come in realising its promise of equality, dignity, and justice remains important. While the Constitution provides a foundation for protecting human rights, persistent inequality and barriers to justice continue to raise questions about how these rights are experienced in people’s everyday lives.

These questions were at the centre of the 2026 Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, presented by the Free State Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) on 13 October. The lecture, titled ‘The Global Pulse of Justice: Bram Fischer’s Legacy Across Time and Space’, brought together Justice Mahube Betty Molemela, President of the Supreme Court of Appeal, and constitutional litigator Advocate Anna-Marié de Vos to reflect on Fischer’s legacy and the continuing responsibility to challenge injustice. The event also marked the Centre’s tenth anniversary. Read more.

FREE STATE CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS LAUNCHES 10 YEAR COMMEMORATIVE REPORT

The Free State Centre for Human Rights (FSCHR) at the University of the Free State proudly launches its 10-year commemorative report, A Decade of Human Rights and Transformation: 2016–2026, celebrating a decade of advancing human rights through research, education, advocacy and engaged scholarship. Since its establishment, the Centre has strengthened postgraduate education and human rights research, fostered international partnerships, and created platforms for critical dialogue on constitutionalism, development justice, corruption and socio-economic rights, including through the International Conference on the Right to Development. Key milestones include its contribution to South Africa’s most comprehensive study on human trafficking, its collaboration with international experts investigating alleged human rights violations, and its flagship advocacy initiatives, such as the Human Rights Ambassadors programme, multilingual debate tournament and public lectures featuring leading jurists and scholars. Through these achievements, the Centre has consolidated its role as a hub for human rights scholarship and public engagement, connecting academic knowledge with pressing societal challenges. The commemorative report reflects on the Centre’s journey, celebrates the contributions of its partners, staff, students and alumni, and reaffirms its commitment to advancing dignity, equality, accountability and social justice in South Africa, across Africa and internationally.

Read the report here.

LUNCHTIME LECTURE: BUILDING A RESILIENT ANTI-CORRUPTION ARCHITECTURE

The Free State Centre for Human Rights invites you to a lunchtime lecture.

DATE | Tuesday 13 October 2026
TIME | 12:00-14:00
VENUE | Kopanong Vestry, Bloemfontein Campus
SPEAKER | Karam Singh, Good Governance Africa
TOPIC | Building a Resilient Anti-Corruption Architecture: From Domestic to International Institutional Design
RSVP | MokoenaM6@ufs.ac.za before 8 October 2026

UFS LEGAL SCHOLARS CO-EDIT MAJOR PUBLICATION ON CONSITUTIONAL LAW IN AFRICA

20 July 2026 I Story Tshepo Tsotetsi

As African countries continue to navigate questions of democracy, accountability, and governance, a new publication co-edited by Prof Serges Kamga, Dean of the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Law, and Dr Annelie de Man, Senior Lecturer in the Free State Centre for Human Rights, offers a timely contribution to one of the continent’s most important legal conversations.

Recently published by Pretoria University Law Press, Cultivating Comparative Constitutional Law in Africa: Honouring the Contribution of Charles Manga Fombad brings together leading and emerging scholars to explore how constitutional law can respond to Africa’s evolving realities. Read more.

FACULTY CONTACT

T: +27 51 401 2451
F: + 27 51 401 1876

E: law@ufs.ac.za

Equitas Building
UFS Bloemfontein Campus

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