The Namibian Constitution In Perspective

The Namibian Constitution in Perspective

Democracy and Education in Namibia and Beyond

The Namibian constitution makes full provision for education as a fundamental human right and freedom. Three years into independence, as part of the government’s educational policy, the ‘Education for All Policy’ was launched as a stepping stone to free quality education. However, inequities have become widely pronounced within the Namibian educational system. Democracy and Education in Namibia and beyond debates the education–democracy nexus in Namibia and the southern African context. It defines and explores the meaning of democracy and related concepts. It also looks at what democracy means in the context of human rights and access to education. The ten chapters in this collection interrogate the strengths and limitations of education as an instrument of social change and question whether or not the Namibian educational objectives and practices do develop and help to sustain a democratic culture in Namibia. The authors in the collection have drawn material from their own teaching and research experience across the fields of education and social science in Namibia and beyond, and present their findings in a pedagogical framework suitable as a challenging text for tertiary students. At a time when education is in crisis, especially in South Africa where strident calls for free tertiary education and Africanisation of the curriculum are spreading like wildfire, this book gives scholarly insight into the history and social conditions that gave rise to our current predicament.

International Law in Namibia

This book provides readers with the knowledge necessary to fully understand how international law carved the history and life of Namibia. It observes that Namibia has benefited from and contributed to international law in a way that shaped that country’s political and socio-economic development and to an extent that few other countries experienced. For many a year since Namibia achieved Independence on 21 March 1990 and established the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia in 1992, students and lecturers have relied on materials from South Africa, despite the fact that Namibian law has since then grown apart from its South African heritage. It is high time for lecturers and students in Namibia to teach and learn with a textbook that analyses international law from the distinct standpoint of Namibia and that views the nation’s legal interactions with other states through its own prism! And this textbook aims to do just that. Through its 19 chapters, this book informs readers about international law, its sources, international treaties, Namibian statehood, dispute resolution, the use of force, human rights, Namibia’s economic relations with the outside world (including the Southern African Customs Union), and the law of the sea. Namibian courts have in their own way followed the rules of international law scrupulously, but – as this book shows – international law nonetheless remains the source of Namibian law that lawyers apply the least. Accordingly, this book underlines the significance, the practical utility, and the relevance of international law in the unique Namibian context.