A law academic from the University of Pretoria has been appointed to serve on the Institut de Droit International's commission on pandemics and international law.

With this appointment Professor Dire Tladi joins the crème de la crème of leading international lawyers such as former president of the International Criminal Tribunal Theodore Meron and judge of the International Court of Justice Xue Hanqin.

“I am honoured. There are some really excellent international lawyers on the commission, and I hope to make my little contribution to what is an important topic,”  Tladi said. “The commission will be responsible for preparing draft articles for the IDI. As a member of the commission, I hope to use my experience and knowledge to contribute to drafting suggestions, proposals as well as legal positions for the draft articles and commentaries,” he said.

Tladi's appointment comes at the height of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. He said he hopes to make a difference in the laws surrounding the virus. However, this is not his first big-time post, he has also previously been appointed to the UN International Law Commission where he serves as special rapporteur for peremptory norms of international law.

“The commission will only just begin its work and we still have to discuss our focus areas. My own sense is that there are a number of areas of international law that require clarification,” he said.

Some of the areas that he is particularly interested in is the duty of cooperation and if there is a duty to share information and resources; state responsibility of pandemic outbreaks; immigration issues and human rights during lockdown.

Countries such as the US have recently been in news headlines for what has been criticised as a poor response to the pandemic.

Professor Elsabe Schoeman, dean of the Faculty of Law, said: “We are proud to have staff members like Professor Dire as part of the UP law family. His work on international law has been exemplary. I wish to congratulate him on his appointment to the commission and wish him well on his work with it.”