Featured Research: Justice & Society

Lecture

‘Ubuntu’s Implications for Philosophical Ethics'

Is there one thing that all morally wrong actions have in common? Western philosophers have searched for an answer to that question for nearly 400 years, and have focused on the features of causing harm, on the one hand, and degrading autonomy,on the other. Prof Metz considers how we could answer the question by appealing to the southern African ethic of ubuntu, and argues that its implications...

Story

Disaster triggers solidarity rather than disruption among South Africans

South Africans have been found to tend towards flocking instead of taking flight as a resilience response. This is according to Professor Liesel Ebersöhn, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria (UP) and Director of the University’s Centre for the Study of Resilience.

Talking Point

Christof Heyns: South African scholar who left his mark on the world’s human rights systems

The South African academic Professor Christof Heyns, who has died at the age of 62, was a world-renowned human rights advocate and academic. He was a thoughtful scholar of both the African and UN human rights systems, and an incredibly popular teacher and activist.

Talking Point

Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real facts

More than a century after 48 000 people died in concentration camps in what’s known as the South African War between 1899 and 1902 – or the Anglo-Boer War – the events of that period are back in the headlines.

Gallery

Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real facts

More than a century after 48 000 people died in concentration camps in what’s known as the South African War between 1899 and 1902 – or the Anglo-Boer War – the events of that period are back in the headlines. This gallery shares some historical photographs from the time.

Video

Documentary: Freedom from violence

In 2020, we watched Black Lives Matter protests unfold across the world as a reaction to police brutality in the USA. Researchers at the Faculty of Law were instrumental in drafting the UN standards on the use of force by police. In this documentary, Professor Christof Heyns and his team take us through what inspired them to lead the way and how less lethal force could be used by police.