As recently as 15 years ago, South Africans did not have equal rights and the rights of children were limited and not enforced.
Corporal punishment in schools was seen as the norm and children were expected to be “seen and not heard”. Since the democratic elections in 1994, South Africa has not only included basic human rights in the Constitution, but has also made it a point that these rights be enforced. South Africa is now internationally recognised as being one of the foremost protectors of human rights, a cause for which people died.
On March 21 1960, thousands of people congregated at a police station in Sharpeville and demanded to be arrested. They were protesting against the South African pass laws, which stated that they had to carry identification books (pass books) with them at all times. The pass books branded these people as non-whites, and thus not privileged to the same rights as people who were white. The protest had been organised with the intention that so many people would be arrested, that the country would no longer be able to function. Unfortunately, the march did not go as planned. After a scuffle broke out, police opened fire, killing 67 people and injuring scores more.
These people died protecting the basic human rights they felt they were being denied, and, in the long run, paved the way for future generations of South Africans to enjoy these rights. We celebrate this date in remembrance of those who died and their cause, and to remind us that no South African can ever be denied his or her human rights again.
Although this day has been imprinted in the annals of South African history, many South Africans do not know what their rights are, or that they have basic human rights. Your human rights are the rights with which you are born, those that you have simply because you are a human being. They are not a privilege, nor can they be taken away from you. Some of these basic rights include: equality; human dignity; freedom of expression and freedom of association.
Although rights are generally easy to understand and remember, many children are not taught what their rights are. Anyone who works with children needs to ensure that they understand their history, and how it has influenced their future. To do this, we need to teach children what their rights are and who can help them when these rights are being abused. That is the responsibility of adults as educators, parents and role models.
Children have the right to safety, education and proper nutrition, yet thousands of children are unclothed, unfed, neglected and abused. Many children all over our country have no shelter, live in fear of being beaten (both by adults and other children), and do not have access to clean water. Many of them are living in states of dire poverty and expect to live that way for the remainder of their lives. In many cases, children are the heads of households and are responsible for the welfare of their younger sisters and brothers. They need to find money and food to ensure that their siblings don’t starve and often cannot attend school. This lack of education pushes them deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty and crime. These children are being deprived of one of their most important rights, the right to childhood.
In a recent study, released in January this year, Unicef estimated the number of Aids orphans in South Africa to be 1,2-million. It also released that 7,1-million children under the age of 14 are living in poverty. In a statement released by Charles Nqakula, the Minister of Safety and Security, it was revealed that 1 128 children had been murdered in 2006 and in one fifth of these cases, the cause of death had not been identified because no autopsy was carried out.
Our future economic growth is dependant on building a strong, stable country, which, in turn, is dependant on enforcing the human rights of that country’s citizens. To build a healthy nation, we need to start by acknowledging and enforcing the basic human rights of everyone, especially children. You can start today in your classroom, by teaching children what their basic human rights are.
“If we do not succeed at education, we fail at democracy and rights,” said Naledi Pandor, Minister of Education.
Na’ama Oren is editor of learnthings Africa
Ten tips
Have learners draw up a bill of rights for their classroom or school.
Ask learners to research the Sharpeville riots using the internet and bring their findings to class.
Let learners prepare a dramatisation in groups of four, illustrating how someone’s basic human rights can be corrupted.
Ask learners to draw up a timeline of important public holidays in South Africa. Get them to draw or find a picture on the internet of something relevant to each of those days.
In groups of two, let learners prepare an interview. One learner will be the interviewer and the other will be a survivor of the Sharpeville riots. They will prepare a dialogue in which the survivor can describe the events of that day.
Use videos/DVDs/slides and/or photos to show learners what life was like during apartheid. Good examples are the movies, Sarafina or Cry the Beloved Country.
Let learners do some research on the internet and then ask them to draw (on paper or using a computer program) what they think their pass book might have looked like.
Ask learners to write a letter to a local newspaper on why they think the rights of children should be protected.
For life orientation, ask learners to list all the children’s rights they can think of. Then ask them how we can ensure that these rights are protected.
For business studies, ask learners to design a charity website, which will allow users to donate money to victims of child abuse, et cetera. They should design the site in terms of colours, “look and feel”, and do some marketing, that is write an article convincing people to donate, design an accompanying brochure, et cetera.