HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 21st March By Reanne Leigh

The 21st March commemorates an historical event that will stay etched in the hearts and minds of South Africans for generations to come. It is the anniversary of the infamous Sharpeville Massacre [1] that took place during the Apartheid era on the 21st March 1960, in Sharpeville, an African township near Vereeniging, Gauteng. The Apartheid era was a merciless time that involved horrendous racial discrimination, abuse and violation of human rights. On this date, 21st March 1960, unarmed protesters went to the police station to challenge the discriminatory laws of the white Apartheid government against the non-whites. In this instance the protestors were attempting to get the notorious pass laws [5] abolished by marching to the police station in a large group without their passes. The hope was that the police would realise that the prisons would not be able to cope with a mass arrest and would thus reconsider the pass laws. But, instead of arrests, the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd and 69 people were killed and nearly 200 victims were wounded including women and children. Following this massacre, this day became known unofficially as Sharpeville Day by anti-Apartheid movements. In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison and then elected as president of South Africa in 1994 - the first democratic elections ever held in South Africa. Following the election of the new democratic government, the formation of the South African Constitution was initiated. As a result of the prejudice and violation of human rights during the Apartheid era, the new constitution embraced a strong emphasis on Human Rights specifically detailed in Chapter 2 of the Constitution: The Bill of Rights [4]. Human rights are not something to be earned, they are rights that everybody is immediately entitled to on the simple grounds that they are a human being. Human rights exist from the moment of birth and are protected in the South African Constitution, which is the highest law in South Africa. On the 21 March 1996, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) [2] was launched and this date was officially named Human Rights Day and declared as a national public holiday. We celebrate this day every year not only in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for our democracy, but also to mark the important progress that South Africa has made to secure the human rights of every individual in South Africa.

HYPERLINKS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/sharpeville/menu.htm http://www.sahrc.org.za/home/ http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/index.htm http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/96cons2.htm http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/apartheidrepression/pass-laws.htm