OPENING REMARKS OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET HEARINGS OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS HELD IN CAPE TOWN ON THE 15TH MAY 2007

Chairperson and members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to appear before you and present the work of the South African Human Rights Commission. We see this as an opportunity not only to share with you the developments in the Commission over

the past year, but also as an important component of the accountability and legitimacy of a public institution that it is able to appear and present its work before the elected representatives of the people.

The report that will be presented by the Chief Executive Officer, Adv. Tseliso Thipanyane seeks to capture the essence of our work, the highlights and the challenges, how we have sought to navigate the reality of a wide mandate and limited resources, how we have tried to find the balance between being proactive while retaining the ability to react to changing and new developments that legitimately demand our attention. It has certainly been a busy but highly rewarding year that saw the consolidation of our work and the further entrenchment of the Commission as an important and necessary institution on our democratic landscape.

1. The work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Independent Institutions chaired by Professor Kader Asmal provided a further opportunity to the Commission to engage with Parliament and to reflect and share its vision. We certainly found the engagement with the Committee constructive and the dialogue respectfully robust. We eagerly await the report of the Committee and in this regard have forwarded to your Committee the submissions made by the Commission to the Asmal Committee.

2. Composition of the Commission: The resignation of Commissioner Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo to take up a position with the World Bank has created a vacancy in the Commission and we have engaged with the Executive and Parliament with a view to filling the position. We hope it is done soon. On a longer-term basis we have also brought to the attention of the Executive and Parliament the matter of the end of term of the Commission and the need for new appointments as part of ensuring continuity. In this regard the terms of all current Commissioners expire at the end of September 2009. We have suggested that new appointments be made well prior to this date so that the process of a proper handover and ensuring continuity in the work of the Commission can be effected in an orderly fashion.

3. Public Inquiries: The public inquiry remains an important mechanism through which the Commission is able to discharge various components of its mandate. It is an exercise in accountability and answerability, serves as a common forum for the public, civil society and government to come together, serves as an important tool of public education and allows the rigorous interrogation of the rights framework which is the subject of the inquiry.

3.1 Late last year we convened a successful public inquiry into School Based Violence and held hearings in Cape Town. The interest and participation in the Inquiry from all sectors (government, civil society, professional bodies and the public) was encouraging and the report is in the final stages of completion.

3.2 This year we have also continued work on a Public Inquiry into the Right to Access to Health Care. Visits by Commission staff to over 90 hospitals and clinics have been concluded and we have received close to 60 written submissions from key stakeholders in the sector, including government, teaching institutions, professional bodies, health care users and civil society groups. Public hearings will be held in Johannesburg on the 30th and 3151 May and the 151 June 2007.

4. On a related matter the Commission as part of the Human Rights and Legal Services Sector of the South African National Aids Council formed part of and contributed to the National Strategic Plan on HIV/ Aids. We see the plan as pivotal in harmonizing and co-ordinating efforts to deal with the pandemic and will continue to play our part both in the sector and beyond it.

5. Crime and Human Rights: The Commission convened a national consultative conference on Crime and Human Rights, which was preceded, by provincial dialogues in each province. The latter enabled the Commission to hear community experiences on the impact of crime and provide a context for the Conference. The significance of the conference was that it created the space to also examine the social crime prevention component, something absent from public debates, which focus primarily on crime from a law enforcement perspective. Also significant was the consensus reached that the existing constitutional and legal framework was sufficient to deal with crime and putting into proper context perceptions that the Constitution was crime or criminal friendly.

6. New focus areas: The Commission has appointed 4 co-ordinators in the areas of HIV / Aids, Older Persons, Non Nationals and Children. The need to sharpen our focus and interventions in these areas warranted the creation of these positions and we are already experiencing the benefits of these appointments with greater visibility and engagement in the respective sectors as will appear from the report of the CEO.

7. We plan to make further appointments in the area of Crime and Human Rights and the very relevant but largely neglected field of Business and Human Rights. Given the power and impact of business (including multinationals) in the terrain of human rights, engaging with and exploring the human rights obligations of business is very important in giving meaning to the concept of the indivisibility of rights and the notion that advancing a culture and respect for human rights is the responsibility of all in society, including non State actors.

8. Our work with and in communities: We have consistently ensured that we take our work to the various communities in our country and as this Report will attest, a substantial focus of our outreach, monitoring and protection mandates happens during such visits often in deep rural villages. Visiting farm schools in Ottosdal, farming communities in Rawsonville, villages in Sekhukhune such as Ga-Phasa and Ga-Mampuru, the communities in Delmas affected by cholera, Crime Committees in the Kwa Nobuhle in the Eastern Cape, older persons structures in Upington and Kimberley, asbestos affected communities in Mafefe and dealing with issues of access to education in Khutsong, all represent a deliberate desire to work outside of the physical constraints of our offices. These visits have not only enabled us to interact and experience with the various constituencies we must serve but enables us to prepare reports on the prevailing conditions that exists there, submit them to government and monitor responses.

9. Working with and liasing with government. We regularly meet with, brief and liase with government on variety of matters. During provincial visits to Free State and Limpopo we met with the respective Premiers and MEC's, were requested by the Premier of the Northern Cape to address the Provincial Cabinet Lekgotla , received and dealt with complaints submitted by National Cabinet Ministers and were on hand to provide advice and assistance on a wide range of matters including racism and transformation, advice on access to information procurement, equality, hate speech, privacy and agricultural communities.

10. Socio-Economic Rights: The Commission launched its 6th Socio-Economic Rights Report last year and we have since sought to move away from the model of an annual report but rather embrace the idea of periodical reports (either thematic or regional/local) with a comprehensive report being produced over a 3-year reporting cycle. We are in the process of developing this new model that will also seek to confine our mains outputs to that of monitoring rather than to seek to engage in substantive research.

11. International Work: While our primary focus remains discharging our mandate at the national level we have interpreted this to include how South Africa gives effect to its obligations in terms of international treaties. In this regard we have increased our capacity to do that and will include matters such as the ratification, reporting and following up on treaty body recommendations as well as the work of the various Special Rapportuers. The Commission attended the last meeting of the CERD Committee in Geneva late last year and prepared and presented a report with the Commission's perspectives at the same time that the South African government presented its country report.

12. At the same time we continue to host delegations from other countries that have established Commissions and in the past few weeks hosted delegations from the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, and the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone. The capacity to support and interact with new and emerging institutions is important if we are to build a critical mass of effective Commissions on the Continent. In this regard we were invited to make a presentation this past weekend to the Judicial Committee of the Pan African Parliament on our mandate and more generally the role and place of human rights and national human rights institutions in the broader human rights framework of the Continent.

13. Some thoughts for the future. We plan to follow up on the work we have done in looking at Human Rights in Farming Communities and have met with the Minister of Agriculture in this regard, we will finalise the Access to Health Inquiry and are also keen to undertake some initial work around human rights and racism in the private sector. We hope to open the last of our provincial offices in the North West Province shortly as well as launch and take forward the exciting e-learning initiative which we hope to present to you today.

14. We are pleased to advise that with regard to matters of governance, organizational cohesion and defining roles and responsibilities, we have made good progress. A comprehensive Performance Agreement, bi- weekly meetings between Commissioners and Management, regular meetings of Commissioners as well as the ability and the capacity to interact on an informal and ongoing basis has meant that we are able to function as an effective and coherent entity while recognizing that indeed we have differing roles and responsibilities.

15. Following the recent hostage drama at our Western Cape offices, we have had to re-assess the security situation in all our offices and in this regard we have to ensure that on the one hand we remain accessible to the public who require our services, while on the other hand we take the necessary steps to ensure the safety, well being and security of the staff of the Human Rights Commission. This is obviously a difficult balance to find but we are committed to doing so.

16. Areas of concern and support required:

16.1 Lack of responsiveness on the part of government: The Commission, like other Chapter Nine Institutions, does not have the power to enforce - its power lies in part in its duty and ability to hold accountable and to seek answers to conduct that impacts on human rights. This distinction is an important one but does then emphasise that for a Chapter Nine institution to remain effective, there has to be a correlating responsiveness on the part of other entities including government. Responsiveness of course does not at all times imply agreement. We remain concerned that the level of responsiveness is inadequate and having to resort to multiple correspondence and ultimately the power of subpoena is not only a poor use of limited resources but also contributes to an adversarial environment. We hope we can enlist the support of the Committee in dealing with this matter.

Filling of vacancies: As alluded to earlier the support of the Committee in filling both the short term vacancy as well as in dealing with the longer terms appointments would be appreciated.

16.2 Legislation and Regulations: We are concerned about the slow progress in effecting necessary amendments to our enabling legislation, the South African Human Rights Commission Act 54 of 1994, in order to ensure that this legislation is in line with our Constitution. The same concerns apply to the Regulations of our enabling legislation which are outdated -the Commission has adopted its own regulations notwithstanding the fact that the regulations of the Commission are secondary legislation and have to be made by the President in terms of section 18 of our enabling Act.

16.3 Conditions of service: Even though the Asmal Committee is looking at this matter it remains a matter of concern that even as we start the financial year 2007 / 2008 Commissioners have not received salary increments for the year 2006 / 2007. This notwithstanding the Minister of Finance having approved such increases.

16.4 Our relationship with Parliament. While the past year has seen a notable increase in the frequency of our engagement with Parliament through its various committees in both the Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, there is still considerable room for improvement towards ensuring a more sustained, interactive and structured relationship.

Conclusion:

Madam Chair and members of the Committee, the institution we are privileged to work in remains an important one as we are constantly reminded of the fragility of our democracy. Whatever the ultimate organizational and institutional arrangements may be, its mandate remains a vital one and one central to our democracy. As Commissioners and staff, we remain ready to continue discharging that mandate, convinced in our interaction with the communities we work with and serve, that the work of institutions such as ours must not only continue but be strengthened.

Jody Kollapen: Chairperson
14th May 2007