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UFS hosts global conference on albinism to advance legal and healthcare inclusion

04 November 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Stephen Collett

Albinism Conference — The University of the Free State (UFS) brought together global voices, ideas, and lived experiences at the Albinism Beyond 2030: Legal and Healthcare Pathways to Inclusion International Conference, hosted from 23 to 24 October 2025 at the Bloemfontein Campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted a global conference on legal and healthcare pathways to inclusion for people with albinism.

The Albinism Beyond 2030: Legal and Healthcare Pathways to Inclusion International Conference, hosted from 23 to 24 October 2025 at the UFS Bloemfontein Campus, brought together global voices, ideas, and lived experiences related to albinism.

Jointly organised by the Faculty of Law’s Disability Rights Unit and the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Department of Dermatology, the two-day conference convened scholars, medical experts, policymakers, human rights advocates, and persons with albinism from across Africa and beyond. Together, they explored how law and healthcare can intersect to advance equality, dignity, and social inclusion.

“The conference invites us to move from awareness to accountability, transforming commitments into sustained, measurable change that ensures persons with albinism live, work, and thrive with equality, safety, and dignity in every sphere of life,” said Laetitia Fourie, Project Coordinator of the UFS Disability Rights Unit.

From conversation to collaboration

In his address, Prof Serges Kamga, Dean of the Faculty of Law, spoke of the university’s responsibility to confront discrimination with compassion and justice. “Persons with albinism are victims of a clear attempt to wipe them out of the face of the earth,” he said. “Hosting this conference reflects who we are – a university rooted in care, inclusion, and social justice.”

He added that the collaboration between the Faculties of Law and Health Sciences reflects one of the UFS’s strategic goals: breaking down barriers between disciplines. “This is not just a conference for lawyers or for doctors,” he said. “It’s a shared platform for dialogue, research, and future projects that connect us nationally, regionally, and globally.”

The sense of collaboration was echoed by Prof Frans Maruma, Head of the Department of Dermatology, who emphasised that the goal of the conference was not just discussion, but measurable change. “We can speak, but if those talks are not translating into actions, we might as well pack and go,” he said. “This is where we begin crafting ideas that flourish into tangible outcomes – policy, research, and healthcare reforms that ensure persons with albinism are fully documented, supported, and cared for.”

Turning inclusion into action

Representing the university’s leadership, Dr Molapo Qhobela, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Strategic Initiatives, International and Institutional Affairs, reminded delegates that inclusion must live through action. “This gathering comes at a pivotal moment when our societies must move beyond awareness towards action, beyond empathy towards equity,” he said.

Dr Qhobela reflected on the UFS’s unique model of inclusion, which sees the Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS), the Disability Rights Unit, and the Faculty of Health Sciences form a connected ecosystem of care; combining access, advocacy, and research. “The right to health cannot exist without the right to justice, and the right to justice cannot exist without care,” he said.

Special guests included Maluka-Anne Miti-Drummond, United Nations Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of Human Rights by Persons with Albinism; Antoine Gliksohn, Executive Director of the Global Albinism Alliance; Commissioner Bonface Massah, Executive Director of the Africa Albinism Network and Commissioner of the Malawi Human Rights Commission; Nomasonto Mazibuko, Founder and Executive Director of the Albinism Society of South Africa; Patrick Wadula, National Chairperson of the National Albinism Task Force; Prof Charlotte Baker, Professor of French and Critical Disability Studies at Lancaster University; Commissioner Elspeth Nomahlubi Berlinda Khwinana from the South African Human Rights Commission; Commissioner Kamohelo Teele from the Commission for Gender Equality; and Visual Art Activist Athenkosi Kwinana.

Their participation, alongside local and international academics, students, and community representatives, underscored the significance of this dialogue – not as a once-off event, but as a collaborative movement uniting research, healthcare, and human rights.

From law to health to art, Albinism Beyond 2030 showcased the power of partnership in shaping inclusive futures. A key feature of the conference was Kwinana’s art exhibition, titled Ndijongile, which offered a vivid and personal reflection on the experiences of persons with albinism. The conference was a shared commitment to ensure that no person with albinism is left unseen, unprotected, or unheard.

News Archive

“To forgive is not an obligation. It’s a choice.” – Prof Minow during Reconciliation Lecture

2014-03-05

“To forgive is not an obligation. It’s a choice.” – Prof Minow during the Third Annual Reconciliation Lecture entitled Forgiveness, Law and Justice.
Photo: Johan Roux

No one could have anticipated the atmosphere in which Prof Martha Minow would visit the Bloemfontein Campus. And no one could have predicted how apt the timing of her message would be. As this formidable Dean of Harvard University’s Law School stepped behind the podium, a latent tension edged through the crowded audience.

“The issue of getting along after conflict is urgent.”

With these few words, Prof Minow exposed the essence of not only her lecture, but also the central concern of the entire university community.

As an expert on issues surrounding racial justice, Prof Minow has worked across the globe in post-conflict societies. How can we prevent atrocities from happening? she asked. Her answer was an honest, “I don’t know.” What she is certain of, on the other hand, is that the usual practice of either silence or retribution does not work. “I think that silence produces rage – understandably – and retribution produces the cycle of violence. Rather than ignoring what happens, rather than retribution, it would be good to reach for something more.” This is where reconciliation comes in.

Prof Minow put forward the idea that forgiveness should accompany reconciliation efforts. She defined forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to forego rightful grounds of resentment towards those who have committed a wrong. “To forgive then, in this definition, is not an obligation. It’s a choice. And it’s held by the one who was harmed,” she explained.

Letting go of resentment cannot be forced – not even by the law. What the law can do, though, is either to encourage or discourage forgiveness. Prof Minow showed how the law can construct adversarial processes that render forgiveness less likely, when indeed its intention was the opposite. “Or, law can give people chances to meet together in spaces where they may apologise and they may forgive,” she continued. This point introduced some surprising revelations about our Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Indeed, studies do report ambivalence, disappointment and mixed views about the TRC. Whatever our views are on its success, Prof Minow reported that people across the world wonder how South African did it. “It may not work entirely inside the country; outside the country it’s had a huge effect. It’s a touchstone for transitional justice.”

The TRC “seems to have coincided with, and maybe contributed to, the relatively peaceful political transition to democracy that is, frankly, an absolute miracle.” What came as a surprise to many is this: the fact that the TRC has affected transitional justice efforts in forty jurisdictions, including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and Liberia. It has even inspired the creation of a TRC in Greensborough, North Carolina, in the United States.

There are no blueprints for solving conflict, though. “But the possibility of something other than criminal trials, something other than war, something other than silence – that’s why the TRC, I think, has been such an exemplar to the world,” she commended.

Court decision cannot rebuild a society, though. Only individuals can forgive. Only individuals can start with purposeful, daily decisions to forgive and forge a common future. Forgiveness is rather like kindness, she suggested. It’s a resource without limits. It’s not scarce like water or money. It’s within our reach. But if it’s forced, it’s not forgiveness.

“It is good,” Prof Minow warned, “to be cautious about the use of law to deliberately shape or manipulate the feelings of any individual. But it is no less important to admit that law does affect human beings, not just in its results, but in its process.” And then we must take responsibility for how we use that law.

“A government can judge, but only people can forgive.” As Prof Minow’s words lingered, the air suddenly seemed a bit more buoyant.

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