Until every person in South Africa and globally is able to freely enjoy their human rights, the struggle for universal respect for human rights continues, Amnesty International South Africa said today to mark 60 years of the organization’s existence.
Speaking on Amnesty International’s 60th anniversary Amnesty International South Africa’s Executive Director Shenilla Mohamed said: “The state of human rights in South Africa and the world is still dire. People are still languishing in poverty in South Africa with inequality gap rising every day. Equally so, the people of South Africa cannot say that they are free when Palestinians are still being subjected to apartheid.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation where people are not able to enjoy even their human rights like access to water and sanitation in South Africa. Women and girls are also still not safe in South Africa which has high numbers of gender-based violence, while asylum seekers and migrants still face xenophobic attacks and a failing system which excludes them and opens them up to harassment and constant arrests,” Shenilla Mohamed said.
Amnesty International in its annual report, released in April, showed how the pandemic was used as a pretext for repression of human rights and highlighted governments using excessive force to enforce compliance with Covid-19 response measures.
The pandemic also laid bare the massive systemic inequality worldwide that continues to deny many their human rights.
In South Africa, the report highlighted the increased use of excessive and lethal force by security forces, the soaring cases of gender-based violence and xenophobic social media campaigns. It also showed how children faced significant inequalities and hardship in the public education system, the risk health workers faced during the pandemic because of a lack of PPE, the restricted access of women to sexual and reproductive health services, and the fact that millions of people did not have access to safe drinking water.
“The South African government needs to ensure that full and effective respect for all human rights, as per the country’s Constitution and international obligations, remain a priority,” said Shenilla Mohamed.
“There is a lot of work that still needs to be done.”
To celebrate Amnesty International’s 60th anniversary, a film “Freedom Flight”, featuring Amnesty International’s activists in five global landmarks, which included South Africa, was released today.
The two-minute long film was shot on location on Blouberg Beach in Cape Town, opposite Robben Island, South Africa, Sydney Opera House, Australia, Jama Masjid Mosque, New Delhi, Plaza del Zócalo, Mexico City and the Palais de Chaillot, Paris.
Iranian-born actress Nazanin Boniadi, star of spy thriller series Homeland and currently filming for Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, provides the narration for the film, with a specially commissioned ‘Ode to Amnesty’ and a newly mixed orchestral version of Peter Gabriel’s human rights anthem “Biko”, which was originally released in the 1980s and was dedicated to South African anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko.
BACKGROUND:
Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961, by British lawyer Peter Benenson who was outraged when two Portuguese students were jailed just for raising a toast to freedom. The organisation’s original focus was obtaining amnesty for prisoners of conscience around the world.
Since then, Amnesty International has grown from seeking the release of political prisoners to upholding the whole spectrum of human rights.
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For more information or to request an interview please call Amnesty International South Africa’s Media and Communications Officer Genevieve Quintal on +27 64 890 9224 or email genevieve.quintal@amnesty.org.za
