As a continuation of its Human Rights Month celebrations, the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Mahikeng hosted a Law Colloquium on 22 March 2018.

The colloquium, consisting of a public lecture and a seminar, was presented by Prof Willem van Genugten, extraordinary professor at the NWU, and moderated by Prof Agbor Avitus, director for postgraduate studies at the Law Faculty.

The theme of the afternoon’s public lecture was “Understanding the notion of citizenship participation in a democratic society: Reflections on trends in African states”. The seminar with the theme “Perspectives on Managing Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance in Pluralist Societies” took place in the evening.  

“We thought it would be useful to organise this type of interaction with students to enable them to engage with some of their leading academic writers and researchers on topics which form a main component of their legal studies and the national political discourse, said Prof Avitus. “This would enable them to better understand certain concepts they would have otherwise only came across in textbooks and assessment cases.”

“What must be understood in the context of a democratic society is that, in order to have meaningful participation from its citizenry, there needs to be a coordinated grassroot-level campaign to educate citizens in the rural areas about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights”, said Thabang Tuwe, a third-year LLB student. “In order for citizens to make meaningful contributions on legislation that affects them, they must first know what their rights are and what protection they have in terms of the Constitution.”

Prof Willem van Genugten, extraordinary professor at the NWU, presented a colloquium at the Law Faculty on the NWU’s campus in Mahikeng.