Dear sir/ma’m, I am indeed extremely happy to inform you that Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) alongwith National federation of the Blind (NFB) is organizing a small talk of Justice Yakoob on 6-11-2014 at 4 p.m at NFB office in pushp vihar.
People, who are interested to participate Please do confirm latest by tomoro morning 10 a.m. at sinhapanka...@gmail.com. I am also sending you a brief introduction of Justice Yakoob. Justice Zakeria Mohammed Yacoob Zak Yacoob has been blind from infancy ‐age of 16 months and studied at the Arthur Blaxall school for Blind in Durban. He completed a BA at Salisbury Island and an LLB at the then University of Durban‐Westville at end of 1972 and practiced at the then Natal Bar, as a junior counsel until 1991and senior counsel until 31 January 1998. He served as a member of the Society of Advocates of Natal for several years. During his years of practice as both junior and senior counsel, he ran a significant and diverse commercial and general legal practice in addition to which he was engaged in community activities, defended political prisoners charged under unjust apartheid laws, did cases to help victims of detention, house arrest and other restrictive orders. In 1981 he became a member of the executive of the Natal Indian Congress, in which capacity he organised and took part in protests, produced and distributed publicity material and organized and addressed many anti‐apartheid mass meetings. As a member of the executive of the Durban Detainees’ Support Committee, He was involved in helping to ameliorate the conditions under which detainees were held and in organizing workshops, meetings and conferences to expose the evils of detention without trial. He belonged to the Democratic Lawyers Association from 1979 to 1984, was a member of the UDF’s Natal executive, heavily involved in a campaign against the tricameral parliament from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the underground structures of the ANC since his student days until the first Democratic election in 1994. Yacoob was a member of the negotiation process and in particular a member of the committee responsible for the finalization of the Bill of Rights in the Interim Constitution. He was a member of the IEC that was responsible for S. Africa's first democratic election in 1994 and a member of the Independent Panel of Experts that advised the Constitutional Assembly in finalising the Constitution; and involved in advising local‐government bodies, the National Land Committee and the Department of Finance in the relation to relevant provisions in the drafting of the final constitution. He attended dozens of international conferences and workshops largely on human and socioeconomic rights and on topics as varied as blindness, children and democracy. Since 1998, Zak Yacoob has been a Justice on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, until January 2013. He is well known in national and international legal circles for his contribution to the socio‐economic rights jurisprudence of our country. Yacoob has received 2 honorary doctorates in law from University of Fort Hare and UKZN. He received the 2013 Felicia and Sydney Kentridge Award for Service to the Law in Southern Africa after his retirement. He has taught at International Law Schools in Seattle, Melbourne, Maryland and has regularly taught Constitutional law in the joint programme between The Howard Law School, Washington and the University of the W Cape. Since his retirement he has: a. delivered papers and talks in Canada and in S.Africa on various topics and as a guest of various institution; has just returned from Tokyo where he presented at the International Bar Association b. ran an enquiry for the Minister of Finance into the conduct of the then commissioner of the SA Revenue Services; c. recently participated in an enquiry in London as part of a 3 commissioners panel of eminent retired judges into the plight of the Cuban Five and d. is involved in various voluntary activities such as: ongoing judicial education; participating in the work of NADEL, the LRC and Equal Education serving on boards of civil society organisations like Section 27 and Socio Economic Rights Institute, (SERI) chairing the SA National Aids Council Trust working with the Kwa‐Zulu Natal Blind and Deaf Society as its President. Yacoob will be involved in legal education at local universities such as University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he is currently involved as a visiting professor of law. Regards -- PANKAJ SINHA (Advocate, Delhi High Court) Cell No. 91-9910247816 Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. 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