Newspaper clipping about the death of South African photographer, Abdul Shariff in 1994. (Impact Visuals Photograph Collection, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center)

Abdul Shariff, a South African photojournalist, was shot in the back and killed while photographing an African National Congress delegation visit to Katlehong, South Africa, on January 9, 1994. Shariff was 31.

A member of the Impact Visuals co-operative, Shariff was hit by fire from a hostel occupied by Inkatha supporters and apparently directed at Cyril Ramaphosa and Joe Slovo, according to an obituary from the Southern African Report (SAR). 

Shariff, a free-lance photographer on assignment for the AP, was in a crowd of journalists surrounding the dignitaries on the muddy dirt road when young men carrying AK-47 automatic rifles began shooting from the narrow paths between houses. Shariff attempted to run across a small clearing – maybe for a better view. Witnesses said he was killed by a single shot in the back. The bullet apparently went through his body and dented the Nikon F4 camera hanging around his neck. Shariff was born in Verulam in the South African state of Natal. He became a news photographer after studying at the University of Natal-Pietermaritzburg.

Shariff was known for documenting the violence and oppression of apartheid, often focusing on the perspective of township residents and black workers. He had worked for Impact Visuals for three years, originally as part of the photo collective Afrapix. From his early documentary projects for activist student publications, the Natal Indian Congress and the UDF, Shariff’s photography in the last few years has appeared regularly in South Africa, Europe, Canada and the US, in major news publications that include The Weekly Mail, Der Spiegel, Newsweek and the New York Times, as well as our own. “I see my pictures contributing to the documentation of our history,” he wrote shortly before his death. Shariff had fought against apartheid all his life, starting with the student political movement while in high school, where he was a coordinator of the nationwide school boycotts.

Photographs and correspondence to and from Shariff documenting his work for Afrapix are open to researchers as part of the Impact Visuals Photograph Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

Join us on October 5 at 11 AM, as we award the fourth Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Dangerous Assignments, the newsletter for the Committee to Protect Journalists. From the Laurie S. Wiseberg and Harry Scoble Human Rights Internet Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

On October 5, 2009, the fourth Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights will be presented to The Committee to Protect Journalists.  The ceremony will take place on the plaza of the Dodd Research Center at 11 AM.   

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) works to promote press freedom worldwide.  CPJ takes action when journalists are censored, jailed, kidnapped, or killed for their efforts to tell the truth.  In their defense of journalists, CPJ protects the right of all people to have access to diverse and independent sources of information. CPJ has been a leading voice in the global press freedom movement since its founding in 1981. 

CPJ’s staff of experienced journalists and human rights researchers investigates press freedom abuses in more than 120 countries, from authoritarian regimes like Cuba and Burma to fragmented states like Iraq and Somalia. They respond to attacks against the press through five regional programs: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2008, CPJ carried out research and advocacy missions in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Burma, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Mozambique, and South Africa.  CPJ runs an International Program Network with five consultants based around the world: in Mexico City, São Paolo, Cairo, Johannesburg, and Bangkok.  IPN staffers conduct on-the-spot investigations into serious abuses, organize emergency missions, and provide direct support to journalists who have suffered violence and incarceration.

The fourth biennial Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights will be awarded to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at a ceremony on UConn’s Storrs campus Monday, October 5.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 that promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

The ceremony will take place at 11:00am on the plaza of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Joel Simon, the executive director of CPJ, will accept the award on behalf of the organization. Featured speakers will also include Senator Christopher J. Dodd; Mariane Pearl, wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; and UConn President Michael Hogan.

For more information, please see the Dodd Prize website

Please join us for a lecture by Carlos Buitrago Ortiz of the University of Puerto Rico

“Views from the Periphery: Immigrants Experiences from the Perspectives of Indigenous Women in Chiapas”

Thursday, September 24, 2009
4:00 pm
Class of 1947 Room
Homer Babbidge Library
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Refreshments will be served.

Today is the ninth International Day of Peace, as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities during the International Day of Peace.

The UN website for the International Day of Peace has information about peacebuilding events and news, and ways you can get involved.

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) has a resource guide for the International Day of Peace, with links and learning materials for educators and students. 

Peace One Day, created by filmmaker Jeremy Gilley, is also celebrating the day, with ways you can take action, and information about his documentary film, The Day After Peace. 

In the words of Albert Einstein, “Peace cannot be kept by force.  It can only be acheived by understanding.”

Starting Monday, March 30, the reading room for the Dodd Research Center will be open to researchers Monday- Friday from 12-4 PM.  We will no longer offer weekend or evening hours.