PEA Public Education and
Advocacy
The CRL Rights Commission holds a view that the preamble to the
constitution highlights the need for unity in our diversity, hence
the motto on the National Coat of Arms "!ke e: /xarra //ke". The
PEA programme is based on the premise that there are differences
in our cultural, religious and linguistic communities but that these
differences should unite us rather than divide us. The CRL Rights
Commission therefore is tasked with a broad public education and
advocacy function on cultural, religious and linguistic rights. These
functions will be fulfilled through campaigns aimed at informing,
educating and building capacity of the broader South African
community to be informed of one another's cultural, religious and
linguistic community rights. The CRL Rights Commission is also
tasked with the role of advocacy and participatory activism for
purposes of promotion and protection of the C- R- L- rights of
communities.
PEA Projects
In line with its mandate as outlined in the CRL Rights Commission Act of 2002 the Public Education and Advocacy Unit has engaged in several activities that aimed at educating the public on cultural, religious and linguistic rights and has also advocated for the same rights of various communities. This has entailed opening up debates on these rights but also following up on current issues that are dealing with cultural, religious and/or linguistic rights. This has also entailed working with Non-Governmental organisations that are working within schools on the rights of children so that they then extend their discussions to include cultural, religious and linguistic rights. In the beginning the Commissioners began a process of Public Awareness Campaigns in the provinces in consultation with the people of the province.
The inception of the PEA programme saw it concentrating on its core functions which are:-
- to conduct information and education programmes;
- to promote public understanding of its objects, role and activities and
- to appraise communities of their CRL rights and responsibilities.
The aim was also to inculcate the principle of equality of status, respect and value for all cultures, religions and languages.
WORK DONE THUS FAR
This Act covers issues of Circumcision in Initiation Schools and Virginity Testing. These have been issues raised by communities who practice Virginity Testing in that they feel that their CRL Rights have been violated. There have also been serious engagements with communities that are affected by certain clauses in the Children’s Act of 2005 pertaining to initiation schools and virginity testing. The discussions on initiation schools were held in the Eastern Cape and those on virginity testing were held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and in KZN. The issue of the attendance of boys younger than 16 attending initiation schools was also sharply raised by practitioners from Limpopo who argued that their children are taken to initiation schools much earlier than the age prescribed in the Children’s Act of 2005 and that the implementation of this legislation negatively affects their expression of their culture.
The meeting on initiation schools was in partnership with the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders and the Department of Health in the province. We debated and discussed the sensitive issues of the deaths of initiates, botched circumcisions and how women, as members of their communities, can help in alleviating these problems. These discussions emphasized the role of women in initiation rituals and opened new debates on the marginalization of women currently as compared to their original ole. This information was also handed over to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to form part of their policy development process on initiation.
The dialogue on virginity testing has also been part of the discussions and debates that have affected the nation especially during the Reed Dance ( Umkhosi Womhlanga) period. A dialogue was held at the Union Buildings in partnership with the Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, with critical role players in both government, NGO’s and the Zulu Royal Household. The Premier’s offices in the affected provinces were also represented. The organizers of the Reed Dance and the women who run virginity testing schools were represented. The King of the Zulus was represented by the Royal Princess Umntwana u Thembi Ndlovu who led the discussions on the role of virginity testing and how the current legislation (Children’s Act 2005) negatively affects their expression of this cultural practice.
The whole Children’s Act of 2005 was also analysed in terms of how it does not cater for the needs of the majority of South Africans and their culture when it comes to the expression and practice of cultural rights pertaining to the adoption, foster care etc.
These matters were also discussed with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department of Social Development, as custodians of this legislation, and the Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities as the monitors of children’s rights, with the intention of raising the possibility of these departments facilitating the amendment of the parts that are affecting the cultural and religious rights of communities. These discussions are still continuing and are receiving attention in all the three departments mentioned above.
- Abolition of Corporal Punishment
The issue of the abolition of corporal punishment within families had been discussed and debated in our dialogues with communities. Most communities feel that there is a need for further debates and discussions on this and the PEA unit will be conducting these.
- 365 days of No Violence Against Women and Children
In 2007 the theme that the PEA unit adopted for its work to be done was” 365Days of No Violence against Women and Children.
The PEA has kick started” this programme with a pilot project in Gauteng at the Greater Midrand area where the linkages between CRL Rights and violence against women and children were discussed at grassroots level.
Lessons learnt from this process then suggested to us that the theme is relevant and compatible with the National Consultative conference theme and thus the focus of the CRL Rights Commission for that current year and the recurrent years.
The theme fell within the NCC’s overarching theme of: “CRL Rights in a transforming South Africa”. The PEA programme had looked at key and critical elements of transformation, i.e. what aspects of daily living are all South Africans trying to grapple with? A brief discussion with external people told us that issues of crime and more specifically violence against women and children are paramount.
To be in line with the thinking in the country, we then felt that it is important that we look at how, as the CRL Rights Commission, we can then contribute towards the national agenda.
The Comprehensive plan has then tried to include special international and national days that are of importance to the CRL Rights Commission and has attempted to mainstream these into the work of the PEA Programme.
This has been done in a way that the work and activities of the PEA Programme are mainstreamed into other programmes and vice versa. This is, however still “work in progress”. The PEA Programme held several dialogues with young people and older persons to debate and discuss what it is in our cultures, religions and languages that seem to encourage violence against women and children. The debates centered mainly on the language used by young people and the music they listen to, that may encourage or make abuse acceptable.
The important issue of how our various cultures, religions and languages can be used to discourage violence against women and children was raised in all the inter-generational debates and discussions between older persons and youth. These centered on how culture, religion and language can be used to greatly reduce violence against women and children.
The CRL Rights Commission had been involved with other institutions like the Commission on Gender Equality ( CGE) and the Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities in the struggle to curb violence against women and children, especially violence linked to Muthi killings. In 2011 the PEA unit has also partnered with the South African Older Persons Forum in the discussion of how we can engage traditional healers in curbing the murders of older persons, especially women, who are being accused of being witches.
The CRL Rights Commission had also partnered with the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA), an organization of persons from the Pagan Religion, on a campaign to curb witch hunts and the murders of people accused of being witches.
The PEA unit also hosted a seminar on the issue of restorative justice pertaining to violence against children and how this can be aligned with cultural and religious practices eg. Cleansing ceremonies and penance which was held in 2011.
- The Role of the PEA Unit in ukuthwala
The PEA Unit had various engagements with government departments working in this area, civil society organisations,traditional leaders, relevant Chapter 9's, cultural practitioners and cultural activists in order to begin to seek consensus on the issue. The Research Unit (Culture) was also asked to do some background desk top research on what this cultural practice entails. The PEA Unit then bought and reviewed the SABC Special Assignment and eTV 3rd Degree programmes that they had produced on ukuthwala. When this was done a presentation on what as the CRLRC we embrace as ukuthwala and what we reject, was then developed. This is the base presentation that we have used based on all the background work explained above.
The PEA Unit had an initial indaba on ukuthwala with national government departments and relevant Chapter 9's to initially make the presentation on what the CRLRC understands by the cultural practice of ukuthwala. The various departments then also informed us what they were currently doing on ukuthwala. There was agreement on the presentation of the CRLRC and that this cultural practice needs to be promoted and protected. There was also general consensus that the Justice Cluster departments should take the necessary steps in order to protect this cultural practice. There was further agreement that the Justice Cluster departments will use the resources within the CRLRC as “Friends of the Court” when these matters are brought before the courts.
The next indaba was in KZN where we met with traditional leaders, cultural activists, the SA Law Reform Commission (ukuthwala co-ordinator), the KZN Advisory Committee on Child Rights headed by the Premier's office (Children”s Rights Unit). The CRLRC again made a presentation to solicit comments and support. The KZN meeting agreed with the CRLRC view on ukuthwala and also agreed that they will also be using the expertise within the CRLRC when dealing with this issue. There was also a report presented by the Premier's office which highlighted the challenges faced by the province that has seen many children being abducted on their way to or from school.
As part of the partnership with the Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities the PEA Unit has also made the same presentation there. There has also been disussions on how, in partnership with the CRLRC, their department, as champions of the rights of women, children and persons with disabilities, will ensure that they also promote and protect cultural practices and condemn the abuse of women, children and persons with disabilities in the name of culture.
As part of the way forward of all our interactions with role players mentioned above, the CRLRC was tasked with the role of educating the broader public on what ukuthwala is and what it is not. The various structures committed to working together with the CRLRC in this endeavour. We were also asked to advocate for action to be taken against those who are abusing women and children while hiding behind this cultural practice.
To achieve this the PEA Committee and Unit convened a briefing session for critical role-players, including the media and relevant stakeholders, in order to present and discuss what is ukuthwala. We also called on government to take decisive action against those people who are abusing this cultural practice.
A diverse group of children aged between seven(7) and ten (10) years had a fun day at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg where they celebrated their rights and responsibilities in all official languages and Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Tshona. This took place during Child Protection Week 2008. An age appropriate discussion on Xenophobia was also held. This discussions on Xenophobia and Children’s Rights aimed to encourage tolerance, acceptance and mutual understanding of one another’s cultures, languages and religions. It was also to highlight the fact that children have a variety of rights and that they must be conscious of these rights. This event was covered by the SABC Takalani Sesame Children’s TV Programme so that it could be flighted for all the other children who did not attend the event.
The issues of Xenophobia were part of the Africa World Day for Refugees on the 20th June 2008. This process coincided with the attacks on foreign nationals. The CRL Rights Commission has been part of other discussions with Government, other chapter 9 institutions and Civil Society on how CRL Rights of foreign nationals can be protected. The PEA Programme also held several dialogues and a seminar on Xenophobia and how issues of culture, religion and language plays a role in xenophobic attacks. The dialogues were run with younger children of ages up to twelve and other dialogues with youth, from areas that had xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, to try and tease out what causes xenophobia. The innocence of children in terms of their readiness to accept and embrace differences was demonstrated. The cultural, religious and linguistic differences were more highlighted in dialogues with youth of ages fifteen and seventeen.
The celebration of World Refugee Day where the participants were drawn from the refugee community, communities around Gauteng affected by xenophobic attacks, NGO’s that work with refugees and governmental and multi-lateral organizations working with refugees. The presentations were made by Dept. of Home Affairs, a South African individual who went into exile and has returned, a refugee from the Refugees Ministries Centre and the CRL Rights Commission.
The next anti-xenophobic dialogue was held at the Freedom Park in March 2011 which included young people from Tembisa, Khulumani Cultural group and Refugees from the Central Methodist Church for Refugees in Johannesburg. This dialogue aimed to foster respect for cultural, religious and linguistic rights for all communities involved. The other focus was to educate the young people about the history of the struggle and how people from other African countries contributed to South Africa achieving its freedom.
- TENSIONS BETWEEN COMMUNITY RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The PEA Programme was involved in looking at the issue of virginity testing as a cultural right and the tension between that and the rights of the children involved in the practice. That, then led us to look at how we advocate for the rights of cultural communities within a South Africa that is transforming itself. How the rights of communities and most importantly, the children within those communities can be protected.
The dialogues between the affected children, their leaders within the communities that do virginity testing, the children’s rights activists and government were very critical in that they opened up the issue of the importance of consultation when legislation that affects communities is to be passed.
The other dialogues pertained the issue of corporal punishment in the family and how various cultural and religious groups deal with this issue. This is an important matter in how various communities deal with child rearing and how they correct behaviour of children within their communities. This needs also to be looked into from a children’s rights perspective as we endeavour to transform the country and the nation. The tension between the community rights and the rights of children was also clearly outlined here.
The Public Education and Advocacy Unit held several dialogues, workshops and discussions to raise several issues with communities. There has been a deliberate effort to target older persons as custodians of their communities’ cultures, religions and languages. These dialogues and discussions with older persons were organized in partnership with the South African Older Persons Forum and were conducted throughout the country. They included discussions and debates in what roles the older persons themselves can play in reviving their diminished heritage in their own communities but also in ensuring that they are part of the current debates and discussions on culture, religion and language. We have also discussed the issues of violence against women and children and how we can use our various cultures, religions and languages to combat this scourge. They have also helped in the discussions on how this scourge was prevented during their time and what they believe causes the violence we see now. These have been extremely useful discussions. Our partnership with the South African Older Persons Forum still continues and the work has been strengthened.
- Gender vs. Culture and Religion
The Public Education and Advocacy Unit also held a dialogue that aimed to start the debate on the participation of women in their cultural and religious rites of passage as part of Women’s month. This debate was long overdue as the struggle for the emancipation of women in their cultural and religious setting is critical in the democratic dispensation of this country. The CRL Rights Commission is at the pole position to open up these difficult debates with the intention to lead to fundamental changes but also to create opportunities for women of various religions and cultural groups to share their experiences, challenges, struggles and achievements in ensuring that space is created for women to participate in the rites of passage in their religious and cultural communities. These dialogues will continue in the future financial years as well.
The CRL Rights Commission has also been looked at how issues of gender equity and cultural and religious practices interface.
The discussions have mainly been on how cultural practices have evolved pre-colonialism, during apartheid and post apartheid. These discussions have helped to begin the conversation of so called ‘harmful cultural practices’ within the context of what these were before and to begin the enquiry about why they then changed them.
In fulfilling its functions as the PEA unit the Commission developed a programme called “The CRL Dialogue”. This was designed to give space to young people to discuss, debate and contribute to cultural, religious and linguistic (CRL) Rights debates, by adding a “youth angle” and dynamism to CRL debates. These youth dialogues were conceptualized to consist of a Youth Democracy Programme which is a residential learning programme . The residential programme was designed to be more in depth consisting of a four (4) or five (5) days training programme that aims to create a deeper understanding of democracy, human rights and community rights. The other programme is a short dialogue forum for the youth which was created for more specific debates on particular CRL issues. These snap debates help the Commission to understand and interpret young people’s views and challenges inherent in their CRL rights. The youth dialogue process aimed to:-
- enhance community participation by creating space where young people can freely express their views on culture, religion and language rights without intimidation;
- promote a culture of dialogue , tolerance and acceptance of differences;
- enable young people to reflect on their situation and
- analyze their views and prejudices and be accommodating of diversity.
The PEA Programme piloted two youth dialogue sessions, one in KwaZulu- Natal and the other at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape. The first residential youth dialogue was held at Groot Drakenstein in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. Thirty five (35) young people came together to discuss and debate the topic, “The Foundation of Being: Democracy and Human Rights.” This programme extended over five (5) days and encouraged debate amongst young people.
The Commission further visited a number of communities. These visits served to strengthen Commission’s understanding of community concerns regarding issues of CRL. The Commission also hosted various activities and colloquia in each province.
The media had been inundated with reports on what the Ethekwini Metro intended to do on the issue of the shortage of grave sites. One of the proposals was that the graves will be recycled, in the sense that new bodies will be buried in grave sites that had previously been used.
The CRLRC was very concerned with the removal of “bodies” from the “old” graves and the burial of new bodies. This was due to the cultural and religious beliefs of cultural and religious communities in the country which was due to the fact that cultural beliefs and some religious beliefs of people associate graves with spiritual beliefs and most customary, cultural and religious practices highlight access to the graves especially ancestral graves. The removal of “old” bodies or the burying of “new” bodies on top of the “old” bodies presented serious challenges to some cultural and religious communities in the country.
To PEA unit therefore convened a dialogue between the CRLRC, the Ethekwini Metro and the various affected CRL communities. The aim of the dialogue was to find out more about what the Ethekwini Metro wants to achieve and how they intended implementing the proposed plan. The CRLRC also wanted to highlight the rights of cultural and religious communities and why removing their ancestors from the graves will impact negatively on their rights. This was held in KZN early in 2011.
An issue was brought to the PEA Unit and we realized that there was a dire need for a public education campaign to look at the marginalization of African cultural practices in the Mount Frere area. An issue was raised that of the fact that the police were using the Liquor Act to stop communities from brewing African beer for cultural and religious purposes. The PEA Unit then conducted a Public Education process where we educated the police and the community on the importance of cultural and religious tolerance. We also advocated for the rights of cultural and religious communities to brew African beer for cultural and African Religion’s purpose. This was in March 2011. |
