South African human rights advocate Mohamed "Shafie" Ameermia arrives in Athens on Sept. 1, bringing with him a lifetime of expertise and experience to share with Ohio University students as a Robert and Rene Glidden Visiting Professor .

Ameermia is a legal consultant and the current commissioner for social cohesion and nation building in the Republic of South Africa and also a former commissioner on the South African Human Rights Commission.

In his first public talk on Sept. 13, Ameermia will discuss “The South African Human Rights Commission: Litigation and Legislation for Upholding Human Rights and Equality under the Law” at 7 p.m. in Bentley Hall 140.

His talk addresses the 163 billion in South African Rand award he won for 250,000 indigent farm-workers, 80 percent of whom were women, with many of them single mothers, who had been exploited by an unregulated micro-lending industry. The lenders had taken advantage of the fact that there was no judicial oversight of the practice of microlending and the garnishing of wages in connection with allegedly delinquent loans.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Law, Justice & Culture .