Johann Kriegler

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Johann Christiaan Kriegler (born November 29, 1932 in Pretoria ) is a South African lawyer. He was a judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa from 1994 to 2003 .

Education and professional career

Kriegler received his education at the King Edward VII School in Johannesburg . After graduating there in 1949, he attended the South African Military Academy for two years before studying law at the University of Pretoria . There he was awarded the Bachelor of Arts in 1954 . He then continued his studies at the University of South Africa , where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws in 1958 . During this time he worked as a research assistant for a judge. In 1959, Kriegler was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar Association , where he practiced for 25 years. He took part in numerous political processes and defended both opponents of apartheid , such as Breyten Breytenbach , and people who benefited from the system. His clients included the founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party and later Interior Minister of South Africa Mangosuthu Buthelezi , the leader of the far-right Boer grouping African resistance movement Eugène Terre'Blanche and Desmond Tutu . He was also involved in the Johannesburg Bar Association and was its chairman. In 1979, Kriegler was one of the founders of the Legal Resources Center and, in 1981, was also involved in founding the non-governmental organization Lawyers for Human Rights . From 1976 he worked repeatedly as a temporary judge at the Transvaal Provincial Division before he was appointed to the position of full-time judge there in 1984.

In 1993 he moved to the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa as a judge for a year before taking over the chairmanship of the Independent Electoral Commission in 1994 . He resigned on January 27, 1999 after several disputes between the commissioners and the government over the financing of the commission. He was previously appointed judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa by Nelson Mandela in 1994 . In this position, Kriegler was committed to promoting democracy worldwide. For example, as a member of a delegation from the International Commission of Jurists, he took part in numerous trips to, among others, Palestine , Malawi and Uganda . He also taught lawyers as part of the United Nations Development Program in Namibia and Hong Kong, among others . On December 31, 2002, Kriegler resigned as a full-time judge at the Constitutional Court, but was available as a temporary judge for two more years. He also worked as an election observer in Afghanistan and Iraq , for example . In 1999 he headed the election commission for the independence referendum in East Timor in 1999 . In 2012 he was chairman of the Iran Tribunal investigating the massive persecution and murder of political opponents in Iran in the 1980s.

Others

Kriegler is married, has six children and twelve grandchildren. He lectures as an associate professor at the University of Pretoria.

Awards and memberships

Fonts

  • Suid-Afrikaanse prosecutors . Butterworths, Durban 1993, ISBN 978-0-409-03275-8 .
  • The Constitutional Court of South Africa . In: Cornell international law journal . 36 (2003), No. 2, ISSN  0010-8812 , pp. 361-379.
  • Democratic Reform in Africa . In: Muna Ndulo (Ed.): Democratic reform in Africa: its impact on governance & poverty alleviation . Ohio University Press, Athens 2006, ISBN 978-0-8214-1721-8 , pp. 11-16.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Suzanne Daley: Head of South Africa's Election Commission Resigns Suddenly . In: The New York Times . January 27, 1999, ISSN  0362-4331 ( online [accessed July 2, 2013]).
  2. ↑ "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" , p. 135 (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
personal data
SURNAME Kriegler, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kriegler, Johann Christiaan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African lawyer, judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Pretoria