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Ford Foundation Appoints Albie Sachs as Resident Scholar

NEW YORK, January 29, 2008—Albie Sachs, the renowned human rights and anti-apartheid activist and Justice of the South Africa Constitutional Court, has joined the Ford Foundation as a resident scholar.

A chief architect of South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution, Sachs was appointed by Nelson Mandela in 1996 to serve on the country’s newly established Constitutional Court. The appointment followed decades of anti-apartheid activism, during which Sachs was twice detained and held without trial by South African authorities. He was banned from practicing law in the country and eventually forced into exile. In 1988, Sachs was the target of an attempted assassination by South African security agents, which cost him his right arm and sight in one eye.

"Albie Sachs is known around the world as a courageous and committed defender of human rights," said Mary McClymont, Vice President of the Peace and Social Justice program at the Ford Foundation. "His extensive knowledge of law and lifetime commitment to justice will make him an incredibly powerful presence for our staff and grantees. We are delighted that he has accepted our invitation to come to the Ford Foundation."

Justice Sachs’ civil rights activism began when he was a student at the University of Cape Town, where he was first arrested in 1952 for taking part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign organized by the African National Congress (ANC) and other political parties. He earned his B.A. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Cape Town and in 1957 began to practice as an advocate at the Cape Town Bar on civil rights.

Justice Sachs went into exile in England in 1966, where he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Sussex and taught on the Law Faculty of the University of Southampton. In the 1980s, he worked with Oliver Tambo, the exiled leader of the ANC, to draft the organization’s codes of conduct and statutes. When the South African government lifted its ban on the ANC in 1990, Justice Sachs returned and became the founding director of the South Africa Constitution Studies Centre and Professor Extraordinary at the University of West Cape. He was also appointed Honorary Professor on the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town.

During his six-month residency at the Ford Foundation, Justice Sachs will focus his writing on the growth of a judicial conscience, adding to his extensive body of work on culture, gender rights and the environment, and autobiographical accounts of his anti-apartheid and post-apartheid experiences.

The Ford Foundation periodically appoints resident scholars who have distinguished themselves in fields related to its program work. Scholars pursue independent projects that contribute to their area of expertise while also serving as a resource for program staff by bringing fresh perspectives to the foundation's work.

Previous resident scholars and artists have included Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, a professor of law and a leading scholar of Islam; the former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata; South African writer and educator Njabulo Ndebele; actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith; and Sir Brian Urquhart, former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs.

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.