RESPECT (Responsible Critical Thinking) for human rights of marginalised groups in Africa

Background: Human rights of marginalised people have long been ignored in Africa. Consequently, many of these people are homeless, lack education, and are excluded from the society in several other ways. At the same time, higher education has a central role in promoting socially sustainable development. Against this background, the overall aim of RESPECT is to strengthen African universities’ capacity to establish and run interdisciplinary postgraduate programmes in Human Rights. As a result of this capacity building, several postgraduate students in Uganda and Zimbabwe are now conducting their own community-based research to improve the conditions for marginalised groups in their region. 

Research: In parallel with the above-mentioned capacity building, the RESPECT project team conducts interviews with both postgraduate students and supervisors on their conditions to become key agents of societal change in Africa. The specific objectives are the following: 

1. To examine the perspectives and engagement of postgraduate students and supervisors in societal change and community development, 
2. To explore how postgraduate students incorporate human rights and marginalised groups into their research
3. To identify and analyse the educational facilitators and barriers that postgraduate students and supervisors face in producing interdisciplinary and human rights research for marginalised groups in Uganda/Zimbabwe,
4. To find out how their roles (student/supervisor), disciplines, and gender influence their views and actions in these regards.

RESPECT contributes to attaining the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nation:

4. Quality Education

5. Gender equality

10. Reduced inequalities

16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (target 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, and representative decision-making)

Research output (work-in-progress):
Eva Brodin, Mesharch Katusiimeh, & Denis Sekiwu (2025). A key agent of societal change? Supervisors as role models for postgraduate students in Uganda. 9th Postgraduate Supervision Conference, 26–28 March 2025, Stellenbosch.