The Commission on Gender Equality is concerned that gender issues will receive inadequate attention under a single ‘umbrella’ human rights and equality commission.
In a statement on Thursday, it said it had been created as a stand-alone body out of ”no accident of history”.
”International experience shows that when there are ”one-stop” commissions catering for all human rights issues, gender inequality acquires a lower status,” said chairperson Joyce Piliso-Seroke.
”In the early 1990s, when these issues were being debated in South Africa, stakeholders specifically opted to create separate constitutional bodies to safeguard these human rights components, because they were adamant that issues of gender should not become second-class issues.
”Questions of efficiency and cost-effectiveness should not be conflated. The creation of an umbrella human rights body is taking us back to a notion that was already considered and deemed not suitable for South Africa.”
The gender commission pointed out that gender inequity formed part of the South African landscape, as a result of the very gendered nature of apartheid.
However, it said it committed itself to engaging with the proposed task team on the recommendation, to ensure that gender receives adequate attention.
It would welcome public dialogue on this review process and recommendation, and called upon the National Assembly to take the lead in this regard.
”The creation of the Commission on Gender Equality came about as a result of input from a broad range of stakeholders within South Africa, and it is important that these stakeholders are given the opportunity to deliberate on this development,” said Piliso-Seroke.
This week, recommendations were tabled in Parliament in a report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of Chapter Nine and Associated Institutions, calling for an ”umbrella” organisation.
This would incorporate the South African Human Rights Commission, the National Youth Commission, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (together with the Pan-South African Language Board), and the Commission for Gender Equality. — Sapa