Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS research fellow appointed UNDP Human Rights Research Chair

26 October 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Dr Carol Chi Ngang, a category C2-rated researcher and research fellow in the UFS Free State Centre for Human Rights, has been appointed as the UNDP Human Rights Research Chair at the National University of Lesotho, where he is currently affiliated.

A National Research Foundation category C2-rated researcher and research fellow in the Free State Centre for Human Rights at the University of the Free State (UFS), Dr Carol Chi Ngang, has been appointed as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Rights Research Chair at the National University of Lesotho, where he is currently affiliated.

According to Dr Ngang, the Human Rights Chair was established with the broad mandate to undertake and promote cutting-edge policy research, curriculum development, and community engagement. He says the chair is envisaged to generate a steady stream of research outputs on various aspects of human rights in Lesotho, and most importantly, to explore the human rights components of the Sustainable Development Goals.

For establishing the Human Rights Chair and funding its programme activities, Dr Ngang expresses his gratitude to the United Nations Tripartite Partnership (UNTPP), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Lesotho.

Knowledge-based foundation for a human rights culture

Dr Ngang states that the establishment of the UNDP Human Rights Chair in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Lesotho is not only timely, but also indispensable in the sense that it provides the opportunity to lay a solid knowledge-based foundation for a human rights culture in Lesotho to respond to and seek to redress the exigencies and the lived experiences of the Basotho.

“With the country’s political landscape characterised for the last decades by, among others, a distressed economy, shaky coalition governments, and instability, Lesotho’s human rights record is not an impressive one.”

Dr Ngang elaborates, “In spite of a cabinet decision taken as far back as 1995 and the adoption of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution Act in 2011 – with explicit provision for the establishment of the Lesotho Human Rights Commission – 27 years down the line the august institution, which is supposed to oversee the promotion and protection of human rights in Lesotho, is yet to see the light of day. Lesotho remains one of the few countries in Africa and around the world that is yet to put in place a human rights commission to ensure protection of the vulnerable population, of which the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights are threatened on a daily basis.”

According to him, one of the most pressing issues in the human rights field currently, is the establishment of the Lesotho Human Rights Commission. “It is a central concern not only for our funders and the Ministry of Law and Justice and the many other active forces that have invested time and resources in the process, but importantly, also for the Lesotho society at large,” he states.

“Without the commission, the vulnerability of the population is multiplied.”

Effecting real transformation in the human rights situation in Lesotho

Dr Ngang says in the absence of a human rights commission, besides focusing on research and the dissemination of knowledge, the Human Rights Chair will additionally cover gaps in the areas of advocacy, amicus curiae interventions, and public interest litigation in human rights matters before the courts.

“It is our anticipation that the research outputs generated by the Human Rights Chair will be utilised productively, including by Lesotho-based civil society organisations, to inform policy advocacy and most essentially, leverage policy formulation, decision making, and resource allocation for the realisation of human rights in the country.”

Dr Ngang also foresees that it will shape the direction of governance and governmental actions in meeting the global Sustainable Development Goal targets, as well as the strategic objective of national transformation as outlined in the Lesotho National Strategic Development Plan II.

The Human Rights Chair, he says, has established working relations with the Ministry of Law and Justice, as well as a collaborative partnership with the Lesotho NGO sector, and envisages doing so with the private sector and other major stakeholders. “These strategic alliances are intended to ensure that knowledge generated by the chair through research is utilised by the relevant stakeholders to effect real transformation as far as the human rights situation in Lesotho is concerned.”

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions

2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

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 2005

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept