Building a Constitutional Court on the Ashes of Apartheid with The Hon. Albie Sachs
Date & Time: November 07, 2017 | 08:30 PM – 09:45 PM
Location: 114 Lewis Katz Building
Penn State Law, the School of International Affairs, and the Africana Research Center will host a talk by human rights activist and retired South African Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs. The talk is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 7. A book signing and reception will follow the presentation at approximately 1:45 p.m.
Appointed by Nelson Mandela to South Africa’s first Constitutional Court, Sachs will describe why the court decided to locate its new building in the heart of the Old Fort Prison where both Gandhi and Mandela had been locked up; how the court invented itself as an institution; and how it decided pathbreaking cases on capital punishment, rights of women under customary law, the enforcement of social and economic rights, same-sex marriage, and restorative justice.
This event is free and open to the public, however prior registration is requested.
ABOUT ALBIE SACHS
On turning six, during World War II, Albie Sachs received a card from his father expressing the wish that he would grow up to be a soldier in the fight for liberation.
His career in human rights activism started at the age of 17, when as a second-year law student at the University of Cape Town, he took part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. Three years later he attended the Congress of the People at Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted. He started practice as an advocate at the Cape Bar at age 21. The bulk of his work involved defending people charged under racist statutes and repressive security laws. Many faced the death sentence. He himself was raided by the security police, subjected to banning orders restricting his movement and eventually placed in solitary confinement without trial for two prolonged spells of detention.
In 1966, he went into exile. After spending 11 years studying and teaching law in England he worked for a further 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, working closely with Oliver Tambo, leader of the ANC in exile, he helped draft the organization's code of conduct, as well as its statutes. After recovering from the bomb, he devoted himself full time to preparations for a new democratic Constitution for South Africa. 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.
In addition to his work on the court, he has traveled to many countries sharing the South African experience in healing divided societies. He has also been engaged in the sphere of art and architecture, and played an active role in the development of the Constitutional Court building and its art collection on the site of the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg.
