Every person has certain fundamental and inalienable human rights. When these rights are violated every day in numerous different places and many different ways, it casts a shadow of doubt over the meaning of Human Rights Day.

At Rhodes University, a week in March is dedicated to educating and empowering people regarding their rights as citizens of South Africa and the global community. But when Western Cape premier Patricia de Lille, a firm supporter of the struggle against Apartheid, was drowned out by jeers, taunts and heckling at a state-funded Human Rights Day rally earlier this month, it raised questions about this day and its meaning to South Africans. Is it raising the awareness and creating the changes that are necessary for all to enjoy an acceptable standard of living, or are our leaders not living up to their promises regarding human rights?

Human Rights history in SA

South Africa’s Human Rights Day, which is held on the 21st of March, has been declared the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by the United Nations. On this day, we remember the historic township Sharpeville, commemorating the lives that were lost in the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when police killed 69 people and injured 180 other unarmed protesters in the streets – all because they refused to carry dompas identity document, which was required for indigenous Africans to be able to move around their own country freely.

‘Human Rights Day meaningless’

In a recent Sapa article, the National Union of Metalworkers SA (NUMSA) was quoted as saying that ‘Human Rights Day was meaningless to the large numbers of poor youth who had no access to education and no job prospects’. If this statement is true – a point on which many would agree – this says much more about the state of our nation and the treatment of its citizens than all the ceremonies and speeches full of decorum that usually mark this day.

NUMSA spokesperson Lazola Ndamase argues that the right to free education and adequate government service will not be achieved as long as capitalist interests were being protected and supported, subjecting many to unequal and unjust conditions for living. “We call on working class organisations to intensify their struggle for free education, banishment of labour brokers and the abolishment of capitalism,” he said in a statement.

Are the poor living standards South African citizens are forced to live in – whether it be lack of education, healthcare, or even basic sanitation – and the discrimination they come across – whether it be by race, gender, age or religion – the consequence of capitalist greed, exploitation and overconsumption? Whether or not this is the case, it is sure that the basic human rights of South African citizens are being violated in various ways every single day. For every child that goes hungry, every wife that is abused, every worker that is underpaid and every person who feels as though his or her voice is going unheard, we should ask ourselves: how has Human Rights Day come to mean so little to us?

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