Last night @LRCSouthAfrica hosted the 5th George Bizos Human Rights Award. It could not have had a more fitting recipient than Justice Kate O'Regan. The event brought together people who have been part of the LRC's history in one way or another. I was fortunate to spend 8 formative years at the LRC early in my career - and shared lunch with George Bizos every day over that time. We were reminded, in celebrating George, that he came to South Africa as an undocumented migrant boy on a boat, later recognised as a refugee - and of the prejudice that he experienced trying to access school, study and build a life here. We honoured his courageous contribution, the emblematic struggle lawyer over so many decades. Kate O'Regan gave a moving, sobering and insightful address on the growing shadow of autocratisation and authoritarianism spreading across the world, the backsliding in democracy that so many countries have seen, and how South Africa is not immune to those perils. There is no playbook for defenders of democracy and the rule of law, she observed, and it is left to us locally to find the most effective responses, drawing on history and the strengths of local institutions and civil society.

Justice Cachalia gave an excellent lecture yesterday - reflective, sobering, full of resolve & vivid reminders of where we come from & what is needed to protect constitutional democracy against today's threats - xenophobia, poverty, calls for authoritarian rule, corruption.