UJ Professor now Secretary-General
AUCKLAND PARK - David Bilchitz, a Professor at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been elected to the position of Secretary-General of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL).
David Bilchitz, a Professor at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been elected to the position of Secretary-General of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL).
Bilchitz is also a Director at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC), a leading South African research center within the Faculty of Law at UJ.
The Secretary-General, one of the most important positions in the Association, and an internationally respected academic in the field of constitutional law, is responsible for ensuring the efficient organisation and running of the Association.
The overriding objective of IACL, which has a longstanding relationship with SAIFAC, is to provide a forum where constitutionalists from all parts of the world can network and understand each other’s systems, explain and reflect on their own, and engage in fruitful comparison, for a variety of purposes.
Prof Bilchitz is widely published in a range of fields relating to fundamental rights including proportionality and fundamental rights, socio-economic rights, business and human rights, gay and lesbian rights, religious rights and animal rights.
As a committed activist working towards social reform with his involvement in feminist, gay rights, poverty and animal rights issues, Prof Bilchitz was one of the key drivers in the campaign for civil marriage for same-sex couples in South Africa and acted as legal adviser to the Joint Working Group, a coalition of 17 lesbian and gay organisations, in 2006.
He also campaigned for shelters for the homeless, taught literacy and numeracy skills to street children, and was involved in a campaign to prevent the culling of elephants.
