We know it when we see it, or rather when we hear it or talk about it, but defining a human right can be more difficult than we might suppose. This is Human Rights Week so it is appropriate that we think about describing this elusive, yet at the same time very real concept.
Chapter Two of the South African Constitution contains the Bill of Rights, a self-contained document that lists human rights and how these rights should be applied – but there is no explanation of where these rights are derived from. However, Section 7 of the Constitution says that “This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom”. This is arguably the most important paragraph in our entire Constitution.
Let us briefly examine the concerns of some of our Grahamstown residents about their human rights.
Education, or the multi-faceted threats to it, has been a big issue in Grocott’s Mail not only this week but over the past few years. Corrupt and incompetent government departments have colluded with self-seeking teachers’ unions to deny basic education to millions of South Africans. Yet the right to education is enshrined in our Bill of Rights – Section 29.
Access to information or rather the prevention of access to information is one of the biggest obsessions of the current government. The ANC’s crusade to bulldoze the clearly unconstitutional secrecy bill through Parliament flies directly in the face of Section 32, which says, “Everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state”.
Children are mentioned as being particularly deserving of attention and protection in the Constitution. Section 28 says “Every child has the right to… basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services”.
You don’t have to spend much time in Grahamstown to find many children who are clearly not enjoying these very basic rights.
Today hundreds of Rhodes students are protesting against the repeated and almost systemic violation of one of the most fundamental rights in the Constitution – the right to dignity. Section 10 is one of the shortest sections, but its significance is overwhelming. It reads, “Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected”.
The students are protesting against gender violence in general and against rape in particular. Few acts of savagery can rob a person of their “inherent dignity” more than rape. The government is obliged in terms of the Constitution to prevent people from being raped.
It fails in this duty dozens, if not hundreds of times a day, every day of the year. It is time the government learned to respect the Constitution so that we as South Africans can all enjoy Human Rights Day together.
We know it when we see it, or rather when we hear it or talk about it, but defining a human right can be more difficult than we might suppose. This is Human Rights Week so it is appropriate that we think about describing this elusive, yet at the same time very real concept.
Chapter Two of the South African Constitution contains the Bill of Rights, a self-contained document that lists human rights and how these rights should be applied – but there is no explanation of where these rights are derived from. However, Section 7 of the Constitution says that “This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom”. This is arguably the most important paragraph in our entire Constitution.
Let us briefly examine the concerns of some of our Grahamstown residents about their human rights.
Education, or the multi-faceted threats to it, has been a big issue in Grocott’s Mail not only this week but over the past few years. Corrupt and incompetent government departments have colluded with self-seeking teachers’ unions to deny basic education to millions of South Africans. Yet the right to education is enshrined in our Bill of Rights – Section 29.
Access to information or rather the prevention of access to information is one of the biggest obsessions of the current government. The ANC’s crusade to bulldoze the clearly unconstitutional secrecy bill through Parliament flies directly in the face of Section 32, which says, “Everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state”.
Children are mentioned as being particularly deserving of attention and protection in the Constitution. Section 28 says “Every child has the right to… basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services”.
You don’t have to spend much time in Grahamstown to find many children who are clearly not enjoying these very basic rights.
Today hundreds of Rhodes students are protesting against the repeated and almost systemic violation of one of the most fundamental rights in the Constitution – the right to dignity. Section 10 is one of the shortest sections, but its significance is overwhelming. It reads, “Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected”.
The students are protesting against gender violence in general and against rape in particular. Few acts of savagery can rob a person of their “inherent dignity” more than rape. The government is obliged in terms of the Constitution to prevent people from being raped.
It fails in this duty dozens, if not hundreds of times a day, every day of the year. It is time the government learned to respect the Constitution so that we as South Africans can all enjoy Human Rights Day together.
