Justice Albie Sachs at the U of C Winter 2010

The Human Rights Program welcomes Justice Albie Sachs to campus this winter term. Justice Sachs is the first Richard & Ann Silver Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights at the University of Chicago. He will teach a five-week course in the College and present a public lecture series, based on his new book, Reason and Passion: The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law, Oxford University Press, 2009. Schedule of Lectures

Justice Sachs' career in human rights activism started at the age of seventeen, when as a law student in Cape Town, he took part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. The bulk of his work at the Cape Bar involved defending people charged under racist statutes and repressive security laws. After going into exile in 1966, he spent eleven years in England and eleven years in Mozambique as law professor and legal researcher. In 1988 he was blown up by a bomb placed in his car in Maputo by South African security agents, losing an arm and the sight of an eye. During the 1980s he helped draft the ANC's Code of Conduct and statutes. In 1990 he returned home and as a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the ANC took an active part in the negotiations which led to South Africa becoming a constitutional democracy. After the first democratic election in 1994 he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court, from which he retired this fall.

Inquiries about Justice Sachs' calendar during his stay in Chicago may be directed to the Human Rights Program: 773-834-0957 or to the administrator, Sarah Patton Moberg, at spmoberg@uchicago.edu.

HRP Receives UChicagoArts Grant

The University of Chicago's Arts Council has awarded the Human Rights Program a UChicagoArts grant for a series of photography exhibits entitled Looking at Human Rights: Documenting the Human Condition. This series will consist of three distinct exhibitions of documentary photography, participatory photography, and University of Chicago student photography. The Human Rights Program hopes this project will help students more fully integrate art and academia, foster consideration of contemporary human rights abuses and highlight important issues of representation, marginality, and empowerment.

Human Rights Alumni Chosen for Rhodes

Stephanie Bell ('08 AB), an Anthropology and Gender Studies Major from The College, is the fourth human rights alumni to be chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. As a human rights intern in 2007, Stephanie worked for the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa on HIV/AIDS policy and advocacy. Human rights alumni who have also received this award are Andrew Hammond ('07 AB), Nick Juravich ('06 AB), and Andy Kim ('04 AB).

For the full article on Stephanie Bell's work and award: http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1786