The Situation In Brief

Despite the advent of democracy, a progressive constitution, and social and economic progress on many fronts, South Africa remains a society characterised by deep social divisions and the trauma of its violent past. With the 2009 election of Jacob Zuma as President, the country is at a key point in its development. Civil society will have to hold the government accountable to its promises of improved service delivery, and remain vigilant in protecting the vulnerable and countering anti-democratic trends. Atlantic seeks to support the stability and long-term survival of democracy in South Africa and expanded rights for all people under the constitution.

Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme Goals in South Africa

• Strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organisations, advocates and allies to protect democracy and the Constitution

• Protect and expand the rights of the groups of people most marginalized in terms of access to their rights, including the gay and lesbian community, the rural poor, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

• Promote reconciliation and nationhood by providing South Africans with the means to understand and come to terms with the past.

Reconciliation & Human Rights Resources

Publications

• The Mail and Guardian – South Africa’s leading weekly progressive newspaper
• South African Journal on Human Rights – a quarterly analytical journal, published by Juta
• Transformation – a quarterly analytical journal on current affairs
• ESR Review – a quarterly review of socio-economic rights in South Africa, published by the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape

Reports and books

• Human Rights Watch: Prohibited Persons: Abuses of Undocumented Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees in South Africa, New York, 1998
• Human Rights Watch: Unequal Protection – The State Response to Violent Crime on South African Farms, New York, 2001
• Nkuzi Development Association and Social Surveys, Africa: Still Searching for Security: The Eviction of Farm Dwellers in South Africa Since 1994, Johannesburg, October 2005
• Human Rights Watch: More than a Name: State-Sponsored Homophobia and Its Consequences in Southern Africa, New York, 2003
• Schadeberg J: Voices from the Land, Pretoria, October 2005

General Web sites

• Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, www.wiserweb.ac.za – an excellent resource for general information on social, economic and cultural issues
  
• Centre for Civil Society, www.nu.ac.za/ccs – a comprehensive Web site on political, social and economic affairs and civil society, from a progressive prospective
  

Web sites on human rights

• South African Human Rights Commission, www.sahrc.org.za
  
• Legal Resources Centre, www.lrc.org.za
  
• The Black Sash, www.blacksash.org.za
  

Web sites on farmworkers and the rural poor

• Nkuzi Development Association, www.nkuzi.org.za

Web sites on gays and lesbians

• Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za – covering gay and lesbian issues on the continent
• Triangle, www.triangle.org.za – Web site of a Western Cape service provider
• Out, Tshwane, www.out.org.za – Web Site of a Guateng service provider
• Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa, www.gala.org.za
• Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, www.oia.co.za

Web sites on refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants

• Lawyers for Human Rights, www.lhr.org.za - see the organisation’s Refugee Rights Project

Web sites on reconciliation

• Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, www.csvr.org.za
• National Peace Accord Trust, www.peaceaccord.org.za

Feature films and documentaries

• Film Resource Unit, www.fru.co.za
  

Continue to read about our Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme in action in the United States »

Footnotes

1, Source: Child poverty and the budget, Inst. for a Democratic South Africa, 2000
2, Source: Research in Gauteng Province by OUT, Tshwane, 2004