South Africa - UN Special Rapporteur
Last updated: 19/05/2011 //
On 1 August 2010, professor Chris Heyns of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria took up his mandate as the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, has requested the Embassy for support in this regard for the period January - June 2011.
The objective of this project is to support the Centre for Human Rights in establishing a unit within the Institute for International and Comparative Law that will assist the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in the exercise of his mandate, for example in analysis of relevant issue on an ongoing basic preparation for field missions, drafting of reports and dealing with correspondence.
The centre for Human Rights, which will host Heyns in his capacity as the Special Rapporteur, was established in 1986 and is part of the Faculty of Law. It is one of the most active human rights institutions in Africa and aims to make significant contributions to the development of human capacity and the implementation of the principles of good governance in Southern Africa and Africa. The Centre for Human Rights has previously recieved around NOK 3 million funding under the Embassy's Human Rights Programme in the period 2005-2009. The grant financed the participation of participants in the Socio-Economic Rights Course and Human Rights and Development course who would otherwise not have been able to attend such courses. Some support was also given to publications.