On 22 June 2022, participants of the AEL annual summer course on Human Rights Law had the opportunity to listen to a Distinguished Lecture delivered by the internationally renowned Ugandan lawyer Barney Afako.
In his lecture, Afako accentuated the necessity to study the “history of the failure to manage diversity”, as it is critical to our understanding of what should be done to overcome racial injustices today.
“It really has been a blight on the history of humanity that differences in our racial makeup (although in DNA terms they really are miniscule) have come to be regarded as defining. Defining of human beings, their character, their culture, their worth as individuals but also as goods.”
As a specialist on transitional justice, Afako has acquired a vast experience in conflict mediation. He has a distinguished career in the field of human rights, refugee law, and criminal justice, and has provided advice on peace processes in several countries.
His lecture was an important element of the summer course, which had the objective of encouraging participants to reflect on the complex issues of race, migration, and transitional justice.
Distinguished lectures at previous AEL summer courses were delivered by experts in the fields of Human Rights Law and the Law of the European Union, and are available on the AEL website.