Human Rights Day

As South Africans commemorate Human Rights Day; the government says Human Rights Month has been leveraged as a vehicle to foster social cohesion, nation-building, national identity, and socioeconomic development and to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and all related intolerances. South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said the objective of Human Rights Day 2019 is to amplify efforts to preserve, promote, and revitalise endangered languages, to affirm that South Africa is committed to human rights for all. However, as this is an election year for most African countries, there have been reports on the clamping down of activism and protestors in countries like Senegal and Burundi. To assist us on this we are joined by: Wayne Ncube is an attorney and head of Strategic Litigation Program at Lawyers for human rights Dr Ashwanne Budoo is the Programme Manager: Human rights and Democratisation in Africa at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria Shenilla Mohammed: Executive Director at Amnesty International South Africa