Christine Jesseman, Senior Researcher/Coordinator: Human Rights and Business Special Programme

South African Human Rights Copmmission

In addition to the right to equality entrenched in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution, national legislation has also been enacted. This includes the Employment Equity Act and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, commonly known as PEPUDA or the Equality Act. These Acts recognise our unfair past and aim to change the present inequalities and build a society wherein everyone is treated equally. The main objectives of PEPUDA are:

• To ensure that every person enjoys all rights and freedoms equally.
• To promote equality.
• To curb unfair discrimination and protect human dignity as contained in the Constitution.
• To disallow hate speech based on ones colour, religion, gender or ethnicity etc.
• Disallow harassment.
• To set out measures to redress historic inequalities.

As stated in our recent submission at the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council: “South Africa deserves substantial praise for its creation of the Equality Courts. These courts hear complaints relating to discrimination and are designed to be accessible to the average South African acting without a lawyer. Unfortunately, whilst great strides have been taken on the legislative front and Equality Courts have been set up, it is now becoming apparent that these courts are grossly underutilized and that some appear even to have been closed without notice to the Commission or to the general population. The SAHRC calls on the South African government to commit to taking further measures to popularize these courts and ensuring that discrimination is redressed.” The SAHRC monitors the Equality Courts.

A further mechanism available is the lodging of complaints by individuals etc directly with the SAHRC’s Legal Services Department. The SAHRC is also proactive though and can initiate a complaint and investigation in its own right and the process is therefore not only complaints driven.

Finally, another point raised at the UPRM was that: “Most disappointing, in light of South Africa’s history, it is substantially delayed in the completion of its reporting requirements under the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Thus, the SAHRC calls on the South African government to commit to putting procedures in place to ensure that reports are submitted in a timely manner.”