The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Peter Erlinder -
An Open Letter to Human Rights Colleagues Concerned About Darfur…and Iraq
To my dear and well-meaning Human Rights colleagues,
The story of displacement and death in the Darfur region of Sudan is indeed horrific. And, since Sudan is one of the few countries in Africa which has been off-limits to US oil deals and capital penetration, the crimes of the Sudanese government have a special resonance in U.S policy-making circles. Although it is rare that the Darfur tragedy is...
Fazila Farouk -
In June this year, the United Nations (UN) extended, Special Representative on Human Rights and Business, John Ruggie’s mandate to continue finding solutions to bridge the gap between business and human rights.
Ruggie’s work is largely aimed at addressing the perils of globalisation given the increasing mobility of big companies marching across the planet in search of the best labour deals in the most pliable working environments
The corruptive power of the mighty...
Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality." This clip produced by Youth for Human Rights explains the right to social...
Aurelia Wa Kabwe Segatti -
The May 2008 attacks and the responses they have triggered from both Government and South African civil society could well transform the migration debate much more profoundly than first meets the eye.
The South African situation combines an extreme degree of violence (62 deaths for the May events only) with classic migration management “mistakes” observed elsewhere in the world, i.e. a laissez-faire attitude, denial of the gravity, tragic events then forcing Government to...
The international community seems unwilling to use the opportunity provided by the Beijing Olympic Games to demand greater respect for human rights from China. There are at least 15000 religious and political prisoners in Chinese jails and labour camps, while imprisonments, torture and deaths are on the rise. There are still said to be 130 people in prison since the Tiananmen Square protest 19 years ago.
Saliem Fakir -
One of the enduring images I have of the death penalty, when I think of it, is a sort of revenge - this desire to extinguish another’s life with the hope to cleanse the earth of a lingering rot by an act of violence as reprisal.
It may well be one of our primordial cultural traits from the by-gone days when tribal law required that we preserve our honor by taking a life-for-a-life.
When we did not have good social skills we relied on the symbolic power of brute force to keep the...
