Thursday 8th April 2010, 5.30 for 6pm at the Book Lounge.

We will be launching the monthly Open Shuhada Street Lecture Series. Expert speakers have been invited to give lectures on engaging and relevant topics. The lecture series has been organised with the aim of educating people more about the situation in Israel and Palestine, with a focus on human rights. A well-informed discussant will ask the lecturer challenging questions. Then the audience will be invited to ask questions or comment on the lecture.

This week’s lecture features Advocate Geoff Budlender on The Limits of the Law: Practising Law Under Occupation.

Geoff Budlender is a practising advocate. He worked for three years as a lawyer mainly in representing people charged with political offences against apartheid. In 1979 he was one of the founders of the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa’s first public interest law centre. He fought cases involving forced removals, the influx control laws which prevented free movement, and detention without trial. From 1996-2000 he was Director-General of the Department of Land Affairs in the new democratic government. He then returned to the Legal Resources Centre to undertake constitutional litigation. He regularly appears in the Constitutional Court. He has taken on cases dealing with the death penalty, land rights, housing rights, social welfare rights, and the state’s duty to provide medicines to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV at birth. He has served as an acting judge of the High Court.

RSVP to booklounge@gmail.com or 021 462 2425