Peter Harris, human rights lawyer and award-winning author of the book ‘In a different time’, will be the honoured guest speaker at the Rhodes University Faculty of Law opening on Tuesday 16 February. The opening will be followed by a function where students will be presented with certificates and prizes.
Last year the Faculty of Law was opened by the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal, The Honourable Justice Lex Mpati. At the function Mpati’s address pushed the point that legal practitioners and members of society at large can ill-afford to sit back and watch injustices unfold in South Africa.
Harris, an alumnus of the Law Faculty, was born in Durban and grew up in the Eastern Cape. He studied at Michaelhouse, Rhodes and Warwick University. He practiced law for 15 years at Cheadle, Thompson & Haysom and in the early 1990s was seconded to the National Peace Accord, after which he headed the Monitoring Directorate of the Independent Electoral Commission for the 1994 election.
Harris returned to law and did international consulting for the UN as an election operations expert in Mexico, Haiti and other places. He then was appointed Director of Programmes at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm for two years. Back in South Africa he co-founded the Resolve Group Management Consultancy of which he is the current Executive Chairman.
Harris’ book In a Different Time is a true-life legal drama about the defense of the Delmas Four group of umKhonto we Sizwe soldiers. The book won the Booksellers’ Choice Award in 2009.
Tuesday 16 February at 17h15 Moot Room, Law Faculty Building, Rhodes University.