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26.1.2010
A scholar from Tanzania presented his dissertation on human rights
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Andrew Mollel has studied partly in Finland, partly from home in Tanzania. The Lutheran parishes in Joensuu have been supporting his studies. Last summer, Dr. Mollel was able to bring also his wife Naishiye to Finland. Photo Marjatta Kosonen
Dr. Andrew Mollel from Tanzania, who has had a FELM scholarship, submitted his dissertation in international law in the University of Joensuu, Finland, on Jan 15. The subject of the thesis is a human rights point of view in the prevention and control of the conflicts in the Great Lakes Region in Africa. Andrew Mollel is a teacher in the Tumaini University of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) in Iringa, Tanzania. He will return home at the end of January."My thesis deals with how, in particular, the human rights of vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, and women, are violated in conflicts, and how human rights violations are the reasons for many conflicts. My examples come from Ruanda, Burundi, and particularly from the Congo from the 1990's until the present", recounts Dr. Mollel. From a Masai herdsman to a human rights lawyerAndrew Mollel belongs to the Masai tribe. His first 14 years were spent herding his family's cattle, and if his father had had his way, Andrew Mollel would still be a herdsman. A boy with a will to learn, he did, however, find a way to learn to read and write. His first school was an itinerary one, teaching its pupils under a large tree. Mollel took his herd to graze near the tree and sat down to learn for a couple of hours. When Tanzania introduced compulsory education, his father kept sending his son and the herd to the mountains, as long as the school inspector was in their home. Their neighbour did, however, inform about this and Andrew was able to go to school then. In less than ten years, Andrew Mollen took his A-levels, and in the mid-1990's he had passed a lower level law degree. Afterwards, he has been working in the Tumaini University of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) in Iringa, where he has been involved in establishing the judicial faculty. Dr. Mollel received his MA in law in Lund, Sweden, in 2000. He began to study for his doctorate in Joensuu in 2005. Dr. Mollel will return to his teaching post in Tanzania at the end of January, a lawyer with a reputation of a determined fighter for human rights. "There are not many human rights lawyers in Tanzania, so I will have plenty of work", he says. |
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