Action Society
Action Society is an active role player in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV). The purpose of the Action Centre initiative is to deliver practical and tangible support to victims of GBV.
Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF)
The mission of AKF is to deepen non-racialism and create an equitable society. The objectives of AKF are: (a) to promote the values, rights and principles enshrined in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of South Africa; (b) to record and display Kathrada’s role in South Africa’s liberation struggle and its relation to the role of other individuals, groups and movements; (c) to establish a research and documentation centre that will provide selective historical and contemporary documentation and archival material on liberation history in South Africa and to make this available to others. The AKF has been instrumental in the establishment of the Anti-Racism Network South Africa.
For more information refer to https://www.kathradafoundation.org/.
Alliance for Rural Democracy
The Alliance for Rural Democracy have launched the “Stop the Bantustan Campaign” and established an independent secretariat to actively drive the campaign. The Alliance for Rural Democracy contests policy and legislation that undermines the rights of rural citizens living in the former Bantustans and which threatens to dispossess them of rights in land. The members of the alliance belief such laws, policies and practices distort customary law, undermine security of tenure and rights in land while entrenching the powers of traditional authorities.
For more information refer to https://www.facebook.com/RuralDemocracy/.
Black Sash
The aim of Black Sash is to work towards the realisation of socio-economic rights, as outlined in the South African Constitution, with emphasis on social security and social protection for particularly women and children and the most vulnerable. They believe the implementation of socio-economic rights demands open, transparent and accountable governance (state, corporate and civil society) and should result in significant reduction in poverty and inequality. To this end they promote active civic engagement by a strong and vibrant civil society.
For more information refer to https://www.blacksash.org.za/.
Campaign for Free Expression (CFE)
CFE is a non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting and expanding the right to free expression for all and enabling everyone to exercise this right to the full, whether it by speaking out, by protesting, by revealing information, by blowing the whistle on wrong-doing, by arguing, debating, writing, painting, composing or just by shouting out an opinion.
For more information refer to https://freeexpression.org.za/.
Centre for Human Rights: Doctoral Programme ‘Freedom from Violence in Africa’ (UP)
The Centre for Human Rights introduced a doctoral programme for students from African countries contributing to a research agenda entitled ‘Freedom from Violence in Africa’. The program aims to provide an advanced and specialised education and the availability of expertise in the field of countering violence in Africa, to those students from the continent who will be able to benefit most from the experience. These students are exploring issues related to the right to life and violence reduction, a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem of violence. The programme will aim at establishing a network of African scholars and practitioners with advanced capacity aimed at achieving progress towards Goal 16 of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. .
For more information refer to http://www.icla.up.ac.za/research/freedom-from-violence.
Centre for Human Rights: Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition
The Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa. This annual event brings together all law faculties in Africa, whose top students argue a hypothetical human rights case as if they were before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Competition continuously prepares new generations of lawyers to argue cases of alleged human rights violations before the African Court.
For more information refer to https://www.chr.up.ac.za/moot-courts/african-human-rights-moot-court-competition/english-site.
Centre for Human Rights: United Nations Human Rights Treaties Project
The Centre for Human Rights, in collaboration with the United Nations, are engaging in a Monitoring of United Nations Human Rights Treaties Project. The aim of this project is to develop an online database that will make it possible to measure the impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty System in every country in the world.
Children’s Institute (UCT)
Children’s Institute is a child policy research unit based at the University of Cape Town with the explicit intent to contribute to policies, laws and services that promote equality and realise the rights of all children in South Africa. The Institute is conducting a project with the theme: “Including the excluded children: Identifying and addressing barriers to birth registration, social grants and education.” The project is aimed at addressing systemic barriers to birth registration and related exclusion from services where identification is a gateway, including grants and education. Working with paralegals and social service practitioners, they document cases as families try to apply for late registration of birth for their children, social grants and admission to school. The Institute engages with relevant government agencies at national, provincial and district levels, as well as local service centres, advice offices and key role-players within the specific sites, to review the obstacles identified in the cases, identify possible solutions and implement them.
For more information refer to http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/.
Council for the Advancement of the Constitution (CASAC)
CASAC is an initiative led by progressive people who seek to advance the South African Constitution as a platform for democratic politics and the transformation of society. CASAC believes in the advancement of a society whose values are based on the core principles of the Constitution, namely the promotion of socio-economic rights, judicial independence, the rule of law, public accountability, and open governance. The founding members of its Council believe that the people are the ultimate custodians of the Constitution, and that custodianship needs to be relocated from institutions to people. Once constitutional rights are claimed by the many, then ordinary people will undertake extraordinary acts to assert their rights and protect and advance the Constitution
For more information refer to https://casac.org.za/.
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