Collaboration

Collaboration with Academic Partners in the Global South 2018

In 2018, the Law and Development Research Network (LDRn) expanded to the Global South. 

• LDRn welcomed Azim Premji University (Bangalore), Fundação Getulio Vargas - São Paulo Law School (FGV Direito SP), National Law University New Delhi;  Nelson Mandela University (Port Elisabeth), University Centre of Brasilia, University of São Paulo Faculty of Law, the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand – School of Law into the network.  The Research Group on Law and Development in Antwerp looks forward to cooperating with these universities on a long-term basis.
• National Law University New Delhi, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) (Peru) and the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria (South Africa) remained our priority partners.  Lecturers from the partner institutions  visited the research group to participate in  our semester program on Global Justice and Sustainable Development (Sustlaw), and to discuss plans for further collaboration.  Seven  students enrolled in our English language LLM program for the first time spent a semester  abroad, each  at one of the three partner institutions.
• The research group also completed the VLIR-UOS funded research project in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) (Peru) on The human right to water in the context of socio-environmental conflicts in Loreto. 
• In addition, 2018 saw the start of a promising new cooperation with Nelson Mandela University in Port Elisabeth (South Africa).  Prof. Vranken taught in our Sustlaw program, while professor Wouter Vandenhole paid a return visit to Nelson Mandela University. Likewise, a cooperative intercultural learning project on children’s rights, migration and accommodating diversity was set up with the University of Venda. We also continued our stimulating cooperation with professor Werner Scholtz at the University of the Western Cape by co-organizing a working seminar on climate refugees and human rights, and contributed once again to the Advanced Course on the Right to Development at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, which the support of the Flemish development cooperation.
• Two scholars from Universidad Catolica Boliviana San Pablo started a VLIR-UOS funded PhD on indigenous rights at our research group, and each stayed at the faculty for a period of three months.