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Celebrating Human Rights Day is important |
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Forty-seven years ago, on 21 March 1960, the apartheid police force
killed 69 people and injured many peaceful protesters who were
struggling against the apartheid pass laws and apartheid in general.
The commemoration of the Sharpville Massacre became to be known as
Sharpville Day. Sharpville Day is now called the Human Rights Day, a
day in which South Africa is supposed to reflect on issues concerning
all aspect of human rights.
Human rights are those basic and fundamental rights to which every is entitled. Before the country became a constitutional democracy in 1994, the natural rights of South Africans received were not protected. The twenty-first of March is the day South Africans celebrate human rights and to remind all them of their human rights. Human rights are the rights that everyone has from birth and they cannot easily be taken away from us as they are inalienable.
The list of human rights protected in South Africa is the Constitution Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights. The rules set out in a Constitution are not easily changed, and so the rights in the Bill of Rights are also very hard to change. This means that it is difficult for anyone to change your rights or to try and take them away any individual.
Because everyone has these rights regardless of their race, age or gender, we all have to respect other people's rights as well. It is no good saying that you have these rights if you are doing things at the same time, which go against other people's rights. And, we must all respect and follow the laws of the country as well.
On 21 March 1960, events were planned for many parts of the country, for people to protest against the Pass Laws. These laws required all Africans living or working in and around towns to carry a document (known as a pass) with them at all times. Failure to carry this document would lead to arrest by the police and to people being sent away from the towns in which they lived.
On this day people decided to go to police stations without their passes and to demand that the police arrest them. The idea was that so many people would be arrested and the jails would become so full that the country would not be able to function properly. It was hoped that this would lead to the Pass Laws being scrapped.
At Sharpeville in Gauteng, thousands of people gathered at the police station demanding to be arrested. They were met by 300 police officers. After a scuffle broke out, the police opened fire on the crowd. At least sixty-seven people were killed and 180 injured by the shooting. These people were protesting against unfair laws and were really demanding their human rights. Many of these rights are now included in our Bill of Rights, and include the rights to:
- Equality (Section 9)
- Human dignity (Section 10)
- Freedom of expression (Section 16)
- Assembly, demonstration, picket and petition (Section 17)
- Freedom of association (Section 18) and
- Freedom of movement and residence (Section 21).
We celebrate this day each year to remind us of the great suffering and loss of life that accompanied the struggle for human rights. It is to remind us that people in South Africa will never again be denied their human rights.
This story is brought to you by Agenda – turning up the volume on gender equity. For more information call us on (031) 3047001/2/3.
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