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17 November 2022 | Story Valentino Ndaba
Dr Catherine Namakula
Dr Catherine S. Namakula, Senior Lecturer of Public Law at the UFS and Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

During the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), the plight of children of African descent was a main topic of conversation. The conversation was led by Dr Catherine Namakula, Senior Lecturer of Public Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) and Chairperson of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD).

On Monday 31 October 2022, in New York, she presented the group’s yearly report, titled ‘Children of African Descent’ to the third committee of the General Assembly. Dr Namakula urged the UN and other stakeholders to avoid using photos of African children and children of African descent in deplorable situations for fundraising and marketing purposes. She stated that "children of African heritage are not synonymous with poverty".

Some of the issues discussed at the meeting included conflicts of law with regard to children of African descent, their disproportionate criminalisation, the intense policing of their families and homes, the racial conditioning of their education, and the use of images of them in degrading circumstances in UN and other stakeholder messaging for marketing and fundraising.

The Working Group recommended the creation of a racial justice index to assess how well states are performing and making progress in improving the well-being of children of African heritage. South Africa was one of the nations that intervened to affirm the report. Among the countries that affirmed other related issues were Russia, Cameroon, China, and Syria.

Dr Namakula also had private meetings with the leaders of the World Council of Churches, UN Women, UNICEF, and other UN agencies to talk about human rights-based approaches to programming aimed at mainstreaming racial justice in their work.

 

African Commission on Human and People’s Rights

In addition, Dr Namakula headed the WGEPAD team to the 73rd regular meeting of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights. She made a statement at the session that brought attention to the opportunities for and necessity of African civil society participation in the work of the Working Group and the UN anti-racism machinery. She made reference to the 'Declaration on People of African Descent' being drafted, to which they may add African perspectives.

Dr Namakula also called attention to the precarious status of victims of modern forms of enslavement, torture, and exploitation in the Middle East and Gulf States, emphasising the important role of civil society in documenting and publicising the tales of vulnerable victims. She emphasised the need for work on the reparations agenda to start right now in order to document Africa's claims and create the necessary institutional and normative frameworks.

She added that efforts are under way to have the UFS Faculty of Law serve as the academic alliance's anchor for the reparations agenda in Africa.

News Archive

Public Administrators and scholars to talk governance at UFS
2012-03-06

Government officials and Public Administration scholars will gather at the University of the Free State (UFS) to discuss the state of governance in Africa. This occurs during the centenary of the African National Congress (ANC). They will attend the 12th annual conference of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM) that will take place on the Bloemfontein Campus from 7 to 9 March 2012.

The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, and Ms Thandi Modise, Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC, will deliver keynote addresses at the conference. The Executive Mayor of the Mangaung Metro Municipality will also speak at the event.
Scholars from across the country and the continent will cover topics ranging from service delivery to community participation as well as relations between the ANC and the Judiciary.
 
The conference is hosted in conjunction with the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS.
 
See the pdf document with times and venues for the different sessions.

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