South African advocate Adila Hassim SC honoured alongside global human rights figures at UWC
Adila Hassim SC was conferred with her honorary PhD on Friday
UWC/SHELLEY CHRISTIANS
Leading South African advocate Adila Hassim SC has received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Western Cape, joining international lawyers and human rights advocates Francesca Albanese and Mary Robinson among seven distinguished figures honoured by the university.
From HIV/AIDS and healthcare to one of the world’s highest courts, Adila Hassim SC has spent almost three decades using the law to advance constitutional rights and seek accountability. That dedication and impact was recognised by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Friday, as the university conferred a Doctor Philosophiae (PhD), honoris causa on Hassim at a special ceremony on 28 August.
Hassim was one of seven recipients spanning law, public service, academia, and activism, including two other lawyers whose careers have taken human rights advocacy onto the global stage: Italian international lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.
Hassim said she was “completely overwhelmed” and “taken by surprise” when UWC first contacted her. That feeling had apparently not diminished by the time she received the degree last Friday.
“I’m still as overwhelmed,” she said. “It’s really very special coming from UWC. The values of UWC resonate with me, and so it's a very special honour indeed. I'm very thankful.”
Hassim worked with the AIDS Law Project, helping advance the rights of people living with HIV, and served on the National Executive Committee of the Treatment Action Campaign. In 2010, she co-founded public-interest law centre SECTION27, where she served as Director of Litigation and led landmark constitutional and public-interest cases.
In 2017, Hassim was lead counsel representing SECTION27 and families of victims during the Life Esidimeni Arbitration. More recently, her work has increasingly intersected with international law. In January 2024, she served as lead opening counsel for South Africa before the International Court of Justice, presenting the country’s case alleging violations of the Genocide Convention by Israel and seeking provisional measures.
Her work remains closely connected to major issues facing South Africa’s legal system. Hassim currently serves as an evidence leader for the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating allegations of corruption, criminality and political interference in the country’s criminal justice system.
At the ceremony, attended by family, dignitaries, students and academics, UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Balfour noted that the university confers relatively few honorary degrees and does so with care.
Hassim and fellow honouree Dr Naledi Pandor had advanced South Africa’s engagement with international law, he said, while Robinson and Albanese had kept global attention focused on human rights and accountability.
Albanese’s international legal career has also extended to Africa. Before becoming the first woman appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 in 2022, she worked with the UN on international human rights, refugee protection and forced displacement across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Robinson began her career as a barrister and constitutional law academic before becoming Ireland’s first woman president and later UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her South African connections include involvement in Ireland’s anti-apartheid movement, while UWC today hosts the Charlotte Maxeke–Mary Robinson Research Chair, connecting Ireland and Southern Africa.
Also honoured were former South African international relations minister Pandor and mathematician and higher-education leader Professor Emeritus Loyiso Nongxa. Pioneering activist Charlotte Maxeke and anti-gender-based violence campaigner Mandisa Monakali were honoured posthumously.
The seven join a UWC honorary doctorate tradition that includes Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Albertina Sisulu and former Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs.
For a university established under apartheid for people classified as “Coloured”, but which formally rejected the ideology underpinning its creation in 1982 and became an important centre of resistance and democratic change, there is particular resonance in whom it chooses to honour.
UWC said its latest recipients, drawn from different generations, disciplines and walks of life, reflect a common conviction: that knowledge, leadership and courage can be placed in the service of human dignity, equality and social transformation.
