Some Reflections on Two Decades of Human Rights Protection in South Africa: Lessons and Challenges

Abstract

If there is one most significant factor that characterised the pre-1994 South African state, it was undoubtedly the lack of human rights protection for most people. Through political, constitutional and legislative means, the apartheid government was able to maintain a state that lacked respect for human rights. Politically and legislatively, this was done through laws and policies that entrenched racial segregation and discrimination, and also through the disenfranchisement of most citizens. Constitutionally, it was manifested through the national constitutions adopted as far back as 1910 (with the formation of the Union of South Africa), through to 1994 and the new constitutional dispensation. Two distinctive features characterised all three constitutions passed and adopted during this eighty-four-year period. First, they denied the majority of South Africans fundamental rights – particularly the right to vote – and, second, none contained a Bill of Rights. During the early 1990s, however, a series of developments resulted in a new political and constitutional dispensation. The most significant constitutional outcome of these developments was the enactment of the 1993 Interim Constitution and the final 1996 Constitution. Both constitutions contained a Bill of Rights. The protection of human rights is usually regarded as a necessary component of democracy. As has been previously stated, there are three important tenets of democracy, namely: that democracy is a form of government in which all adult