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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

Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture to focus on Leadership challenges

2006-03-27

Lecture to focus on Leadership challenges

n Thursday 25 May 2006 – Africa Day – the University of the Free State (UFS) will host the inaugural King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture in honour of this great African leader and nation-builder.

Prof Njabulo Ndebele, internationally renowned writer and academic, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT), will deliver the inaugural lecture at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein on the topic: Reflections on the Leadership Challenges in South Africa.

“I see the lecture as part of a larger debate on leadership models, particularly the concept of African leadership, as well as the ongoing discourse about nation-building and reconciliation,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

According to Prof Fourie, the Moshoeshoe project was launched at the UFS in 2004 to coincide with South Africa’s first decade of democracy and was part of the University’s centenary celebrations, having been founded in 1904.

“Through this project the UFS seeks to honour a great African leader and demonstrate our commitment to transformation so as to create a truly inclusive and non-racial university,” said Prof Fourie.

“As the founder of the Basotho nation, King Moshoeshoe is widely credited for his exceptional style of leadership, displaying the characteristics of diplomacy, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence in his efforts to unite diverse groups into one nation,” said Prof Fourie.

As part of its ongoing Moshoeshoe project, the UFS commissioned a television documentary programme on the life and legacy of King Moshoeshoe. This was completed in 2004 and broadcast on SABC 2 later that year.

For further information, Me Tumi Tabane can be contacted at (051) 401-2828 or tabaneme.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za.

Abridged curriculum vitae of Njabulo S Ndebele

Professor Njabulo S Ndebele is currently Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UCT.

Njabulo Ndebele began his term of office at UCT in July 2000, following tenure as a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation’s headquarters in New York. He joined the Foundation in September 1998, immediately after a five-year term of office as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the North in Sovenga, at the then Northern Province. Previously he served as Vice-Rector of the University of the Western Cape. Earlier positions include Chair of the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand; and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dean, and Head of the English Department at the National University of Lesotho.

An established author, Njabulo Ndebele recently published a novel The Cry of Winnie Mandela to critical acclaim. An earlier publication Fools and Other Stories won the Noma Award, Africa’s highest literary award for the best book published in Africa in 1984. His highly influential essays on South African literature and culture were published in a collection Rediscovery of the Ordinary.

Njabulo Ndebele served as President of the Congress of South African Writers for many years. As a public figure he is known for his incisive insights in commentaries on a range of public issues in South Africa. He holds honorary doctorates from Universities in the Netherlands, Japan, South Africa and the United States of America. He is also a Fellow of UCT.

Njabulo Ndebele is also a key figure in South African higher education. He has served as Chair of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellor’s Association from 2002-2005, and served on the Executive Board of the Association of African Universities since 2001. He has done public service in South Africa in the areas of broadcasting policy, school curriculum in history, and more recently as chair of a government commission on the development and use of African languages as media of instruction in South African higher education. He recently became President of the Association of the AAU and Chair of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA).

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 March 2006

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