Date of death
22 June 2011
Positions last held in government
Prof Kader Asmal served as a Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry of the Republic of South African from 1994 until 16 June 1999; as a Minister of Education from 17 June 1999 to 2004; as a Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Sub-Committee of Ethics and Members' interests and as a Chairperson of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.
Academic Qualifications
Prof Asmal obtained Natal Teacher's Diploma in Durban during the period 1953 to 1954. He held a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) from 1954 to 1957; LL B and LL M from the London School of Economics, University of London between 1959 and 1964; Barrister, Lincoln's Inn, London in 1963; a Master of Arts degree from Dublin University in 1966; Barrister, at King's Inn in Dublin in 1975 and as Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1994.
Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities
Prof Asmal was a founder of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement in London in 1960 and a founder and Vice-Chairperson of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1963 to 1972 and as a Chairperson from 1972 until 1991.
He was a Rapporteur of various United Nations and non-governmental conferences on South Africa in 1974. He was a Law teacher at Trinity College in Dublin, for 27 years, specialising in Human Rights, Labour and International Law and was a Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Trinity College in Dublin from 1980 until 1986. He was also a Professor of Human Rights at the University of the Western Cape from 1990 until 1986.
From 1966 until 1981 Prof Asmal served as a Vice-President of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa and from 1976 until 1990 he was a President of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
He was a member of the Constitutional Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) since its establishment in 1986. He returned from exile in 1990 and he was elected to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC in July 1991. He was appointed to the ANC's National Commission for the Emancipation of Women in 1992.
He was a member of Council of the University of the North in 1992; a delegate to Working Group 1 of Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) in 1992 and a member of the negotiating team of the ANC at the Multiparty Negotiating Forum in 1993.
He also served as a Vice-President of the African Association of International Law; as a member of the Board of Sponsors of the South African Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders.
He was a trustee of the Street Law Project; a member of the Board of Control of Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand; and a member of various South African and International associations, including being a Vice-Chairperson of Independent World Commission on the Oceans and Chairperson of the World Commission on Dams, the first ever independent review of the costs and benefit of large dams projects which reported in December 2000. He participated in a number of international commissions of enquiry on human rights issues.
Research/Presentations/Awards/Decorations/Bursaries and Publications
Prof Asmal has written two books, co-edited another, written nine chapters in books and over 150 articles on legal and political aspects of Apartheid, Labour law and Ireland and decolonisation.
Source: Ministry of Education
