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15 March 2021

What do Africa, human rights, and transformation have to do with one another? Are human rights instruments for transformation in Africa, neo-colonial impositions, or the last refuge of the privileged? Is transformation a desirable goal for Africa, or a red herring to make us forget about the real work of decolonisation?

The Department of Public Law and the Free State Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State invite you to a webinar on Africa / Human rights / Transformation’ – a conversation with Johan Froneman, Dhaya Pillay, and Toyin Falola as part of Human Rights Week 2021.

The panel will discuss these and related issues from their perspectives as judges, academics, and politically aware Africans of different hues and origins. Prof Karin van Marle will be the moderator.

Date: 16 March 2021

Time: 15:00-16:30

Virtual event, details, and link to be provided upon RSVP to FSCHR@ufs.ac.za

Information on the speakers

Prof Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin, and an extraordinary professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State.

Judge Dhaya Pillay is a judge of the High Court of South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal), Commissioner on the Independent Electoral Commission, and extraordinary professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State.

Judge Johan Froneman is a retired judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and extraordinary professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of the Free State.

Prof Karin van Marle is professor of Jurisprudence at the University of the Free State.

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during spring graduation ceremony
2004-09-20

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award three honorary doctorates this week during its spring graduation ceremony.

The graduation ceremony will take place on Wednesday 22 September 2004 and the honorary doctorates are Dr Calvin Seerveld (D Phil (hc), Prof YK Seedat (MD (hc) and Dr Mary Seely (D Sc (hc).

“The doctorates come from a wide spectrum of specialty fields and serve as proof of the UFS’s policy to give recognition to people who stand out and make a difference,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Dr Calvin Seerveld (D Phil (hc) will receive an honorary doctorate for his academic leadership at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and the wide international recognition he has received throughout his career in various subject areas, eg philosophical aesthesia, the theory of art, the methodology of the description of the history of art and continental philosophy.

Prof YK Seedat (MD (hc) will receive an honorary doctorate for his extraordinary contribution to medicine in South Africa. His research in the field of hypertension in blacks received international recognition and significantly contributed to the understanding of the pathophysiology of this condition.

In the mid-eighties Prof Seedat was instrumental in supporting the bid from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) to host the first Colleges of Medicine of South Africa examination in Bloemfontein. This started a tradition that is still being maintained. Prof Seedat is a researcher at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

The Executive Director of the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, Dr Mary Seely (D Sc (hc)), will be honored for the impact she has made on the development of environmental management in the drier parts of the southern African subcontinent. Though her research has been concentrated in Namibia, she has affected the professional lives of large numbers of ecologists, environmental scientists and environmental managers.

According to Prof Fourie the three doctorates form part of the greater group of 18 who will be honored by the UFS during its centenary year. The last group will be receiving their honorary doctorates in October 2004.

 

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
20 September 2004

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