The 17th Annual Human Rights Lecture, hosted by the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law, Prof Sandra Liebenberg and the Acting Dean of the Law Faculty, Prof Juanita Pienaar, took place on Wednesday, the 22nd of March, at the Faculty of Law. This lecture, sponsored by the Law firm, Webber Wentzel, marks Human Rights Day, which was commemorated on the 21st of March. The lecture was hosted in hybrid format and was well-attended both in person and online by various representatives of government institutions, civil society organisations, academics, students and the media.
This year’s lecture was presented by Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, on the topic of Who Believes Black Women? Applying the Right to Health Framework to Undo Epistemic Injustice.
Dr Mofokeng is a medical doctor, human rights defender and activist. She has expertise in advocating for universal access to health care, HIV/AIDS responsive care, youth-friendly services and family planning. She has also worked on matters of gender-based violence, defending the rights of the abused with an interest to ensure access to post-violence care. She is a medical director of the DISA Clinic in Johannesburg, and Distinguished lecturer at the O’Neil Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown. She co-chairs the O’Neil-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health. She has served as a Commissioner on the Commission for Gender Equality, and on the boards of directors of several national and international NGOs and research institutes. Dr Mofokeng is a broadcaster and advocate for health rights with a notable footprint on national and international media channels. In 2021 she was named as amongst the BBC’s Top 100 Women. She is the author of the best-selling book, Dr T: A Guide to Sexual Health and Pleasure, published by PanMacmillan.
In her address, Dr Mofokeng focused on epistemic injustice against Black women, which she defined as “when someone’s knowledge or experience is not taken seriously or considered credible on the basis of an analysis of power and associated stereotypes”. She highlighted various instances of such injustice drawn from her experience as a former Commissioner with the Commission for Gender Equality and as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. These include how sports governing bodies have sought to control and regulate women’s participation in sports through “sex testing”, as exemplified by the case of Caster Semenya. She highlighted the degrading and humiliating treatment that such athletes undergo, and how such treatment violates their human dignity, equality, privacy, autonomy and physical and psychological integrity.
The second example of epistemic injustice she highlighted concerned the coerced sterilisation of black women without their informed consent. Thirdly, she highlighted how the criminalisation and pervasive stereotypes against sex workers expose them to multiple human rights violations. However, she noted that “not all is lost” in that on 30 November 2022 Cabinet approved an Amendment Bill to the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Act, which is aimed at the effective decriminalisation of the sale and purchase of adult sexual services. Her lecture was a vivid demonstration of how structural inequalities create deeply entrenched patterns of vulnerabilities and disadvantages. Dr Mofokeng pointed out in her lecture: “… people are not inherently vulnerable, but that these vulnerabilities are rather brought by the obstacles they face in the social, economic and political contexts in which they live.”
During a lively question and answer session, Dr Mofokeng emphasised that the recognition of the human rights of LGBTQIA+ persons does not detract from anyone’s human rights. Instead, it ensures that the rights of everyone, in their full diversity, is recognised and affirmed. In thanking Dr Mofokeng for her lecture, Prof Liebenberg said that her lecture was a powerful illustration of the structural barriers faced by black women in achieving the full and effective equality promised by the Constitution.
See also: Tamsin Metelerkamp, “Black women continue to battle epistemic injustice, but it can change: UN special rapporteur” Daily Maverick, 23 March 2023: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-03-23-black-women-continue-to-battle-epistemic-injustice/
Photo 1: From left: Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Juanita Pienaar; Deputy Vice-Chancellor Learning and tTeaching, Professor Deresh Ramjugernath; 17th Annual Human Rights Lecture speaker, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng and HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law incumbent, Professor Sandra Liebenberg.
Photographer: Ignus Dreyer, Stellenbosch Centre for Photographic Services.
