Ms Lee Stone
Contact Details:
Work Tel no: +27-(0)31 260 2847
Work Fax no: +27-(0)31 260 2867
E-mail: stonel@ukzn.ac.za
Bio:
My interest and passion for human rights has increased exponentially over the past 10 years. With respect to my experience a highlight in my career thus far has been the opportunity of being involved in the submission of a case to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on behalf of Garreth Anver Prince against the Republic of South Africa while I was completing my LLM Degree.
The intention behind submitting the 'Prince' case to the African Commission was to enhance the jurisprudence of the African Commission concerning very important socio-economic and cultural rights so as to ensure that Africans can benefit from the full enjoyment of human rights. This matter has been decided by the African Commission and has served to substantially develop and enhance the jurisprudence of the African Regional Human Rights System.
Subsequent to obtaining my LLM Degree, I took up an eight month research position with the Refugee Rights Project at Lawyers for Human Rights, South Africa. It was at this time that I co-wrote the book "A Right or a Privilege? Access to Basic Education for Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Children in South Africa". This book focussed on a variety of issues impeding the right of access to education and required an in-depth analysis of the legal parameters within which the right to education is understood both internationally and in the South African context.
As a consequence of my particular interest in developing the jurisprudence of the African Regional Human Rights system, I was fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to work at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights where I was able to develop my knowledge and exertise with respect to international human rights law. In addition, I have benefitted from experience at international as well as national human rights organisations. At the international level I was employed as a Legal Officer at a Pan-African Non-Governmental Organisation (Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, based in The Gambia) that focuses on taking cases to the African Commission. Thereafter, when I left The Gambia to return to South Africa, I worked at Legal Resources Centre in Durban before joining the University of KwaZulu-Natal, while at all times intent on continuing to pursue the trajectory of having an active involvement in public interest/strategic litigation.
In parallel with my teaching, I have continued to maintain a working relationship with Legal Resources Centre and have consulted to them in order to draw up relevant affidavits and legal documents on socio-economic rights matters with which they have been involved, such as evictions in the Crossmoor area of Chatsworth in Durban South and the disconnection of electricity (for failure to pay property rates) to a community who were renting property from the Ngonyama Trust in KwaZulu-Natal.
Appointment Designation:
Senior Lecturer
Academic Qualifications:
LLB (Free State); LLM (Pretoria)
Professional Qualifications:
Attorney of the High Court of South Africa
LLB COURSES CURRENTLY TEACHING (2010):
Administrative Law; Constitutional Law
Research Interests:
African Regional Human Rights; Gender and the Law
Recent Publications:
The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development: Duplication or complementarity of the African Union Protocol on Women’s Rights? co-written with Malebakeng Forere African Human Rights Law Journal 2009 (2)
“What’s new pussycat? The recurring debate in Britain and South Africa on law, private morality and the re-criminalisation/de-criminalisation of prostitution” co-written with Prof. Stephen Peté, presented at the Southern African Law Teachers Conference, Pietermaritzburg, 11 – 14 July 2009
Fundamental Rights, Law of South Africa (LAWSA) (2008) Vol. 10, Lexis Nexis Butterworths
Race thinking and the law in post 1994 South Africa co-written with Dr Yvonne Erasmus, Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, UKZN (accessible at www.ccrri.ukzn.ac.za)
“Facts, ‘distortions of the facts’, and fiction: Brief comments on the CASA judgements and its implications”, co-written with Dr Yvonne Erasmus, China Monitor, a publication of the Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Introduction to Human Rights Law: A Textbook, co-written with Prof. Avinash Govindjee, Dave Holness, Magnus Killander, et al, published by LexisNexis Butterworths
Recent Papers Delivered:
What’s new pussycat? The recurring debate in Britain and South Africa on law, private morality and the re-criminalisation/de-criminalisation of prostitution, 13 July 2009. Co-presented with Professor Stephen Peté at the Southern African Law Teachers Conference.
Race thinking and the law in post 1994 South Africa, 24 August 2008, UKZN, South Africa. Presented during a seminar at the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, UKZN, Durban
The Judicial Enforcement of Human Rights: The African Court of Justice and Human Rights, April 2007, Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, South Africa
Presented a paper with Judge Bernard Ngoepe, South Africa’s nominated Judge of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights
Useful Websites:
Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (www.up.ac.za/chr)
African Union (www.africa-union.org)
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (www.achpr.org)