School of Law

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Browsing School of Law by Author "Harris, Christian"

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    Linguistic rights in Africa: A critical analysis of the survivability of indigenous languages of Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2021) Harris, Christian
    The call for the protection and promotion of languages, especially minority languages has gained prominence in recent years largely due to awareness campaigns by academics and human rights organisations. The United Nations through its agency the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continues to promote linguistic and cultural diversity as well as multilingualism. To this effect, the UN recognizes 21 February as ‘International Mother Tongue Day. Alarmingly, about 90% of the world’s languages are expected to die out within the next 100 years or so if mechanisms to reverse this impending tragedy are not adopted by various states across the world. The study therefore focused on the language situation in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. It should be noted that the study was interdisciplinary in nature. It encompassed areas of sociology, linguistics, anthropology, history, political science and law. Because of its interdisciplinary approach, the study discussed issues of language and nation state, language loss, international law and language rights, the linguistic history of Africa as well as the economic and political effects related to the marginalization of African languages. Desktop research methodology and to a lesser extent face to face interviews were the main methods used to acquire data for the study. The study revealed two crucial findings: These are: (1) there is no specific international legal instrument that recognizes the right to language. (2) The study further found that Namibia recognizes the right to language under its Constitution, however, there is no specific law nor a language body that specifically protects and promotes local languages. The author thus recommended that the Namibian National Language Policy as crafted in 1981 be reviewed and updated. The author further recommends that African languages be used in all educational settings. This will encourage language scholars to develop new vocabulary and new scientific terminologies to represent new thoughts and philosophies articulated in African languages.
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    Reparations under international law: A case study of the Herero/ Nama claims for reparations for genocide committed by the German Government
    (2013) Harris, Christian
    The Herero and Nama genocide perpetrated by the German colonial authorities, under the command of General Von Trotha has left a controversial legacy in Namibia. It was during the period of 1904-07 when an estimated 80 percent of Hereros and 50 percent of Namas perished in their quest to reclaim their lands from German settlers. Due to the political situation of that period before Namibia‟s independence in 1990, little was said about the genocide until the descendants of the genocide victims petitioned the German Government and companies of that era to pay reparations for colonial injustices. They subsequently filed a claim in Washington D.C. in 2001 to force the German government to make reparation payments totaling over two billion American dollars. In his first visit to Namibia, in 1998, the then President of the Federal Republic of Germany, His Excellency Roman Herzog, expressed regret about the genocide, but stopped short of offering reparation payments. Moreover, in 2004, another German diplomat, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul was dispatched to Namibia, to coincide with the Herero commemoration of the genocide at Okahandja and in the process apologized for the genocide, but also stopped short of discussing the issue of reparations. As such the purpose of this research was to discuss the merits and demerits of the Herero/Nama claims against the German government, and provide a comparable assessment of other claims, most notably the success of Jewish claims against the current German government. Qualitative method of research was utilized in this research. Personal interviews were also conducted during the course of this research. The interviewees were members of the OvaHerero ethnic group as well as several high profile politicians and government officials.