South African Human Rights Commission Crime Conference Report on "Crime and
its impact on Human Rights: Ten Years of the Bill of Rights".
24 October 2007
The South African Human Rights Commission crime report findings and
recommendations launched today recommended several measures which will
hopefully crate a better and more holistic understanding of the complexity of
crime.
According to Mr Jody Kollapen Chairperson of Human Rights Commission; over
the past few years, South Africa has witnessed high levels of crime.
Manifestations of crime are happening at levels that impact seriously on
individuals and institutions and impair their ability to enjoy the human rights
guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
He adds that violent crimes affect the right to life, they affect personal
security; they affect dignity and bodily integrity of its many victims. Sexual
crimes against women represent in the words of the Constitutional Court "the
most formidable challenge to the self-determination of women, while incidence
of child rape and abuse deny to children the special protection afforded to
them by the Constitution". On the other hand, non-violent crime also wreaks its
own damage and corruption, in particular, its devastating impact on social and
economic development. Whether it relates to social security grants, school
feeding schemes or the building of homes, corruption inevitably deprives
beneficiaries of the services they would ordinarily be entitled to.
"Crime also affects the moral fibre of the nation, especially the morale of
victims. It has also seriously prejudiced South Africa's profile at the
international level. Crime has led to perceptions that the Constitution as well
as the criminal justice system are criminal-friendly. There are perceptions
that the transformation of the criminal justice system to bring it in line with
international human rights norms and standards hampers law enforcement agencies
to effectively deal with crime in the country. These perceptions have led to
the loss of faith in the entire criminal justice system to prevent and combat
crime in the country," he says.
Mr Kollapen further says the challenge of crime and the effective response
to it requires a co-ordinated, effective and spirited response. All South
Africans share the responsibility of fighting crime in varying degrees. It is
therefore critical that the commitment to a partnership amongst various
stakeholders in the fight against crime is made real. Measures aimed at
eradicating crime must be shared as part of a vision and commitment to deal
with this formidable threat to our human rights culture, our moral destiny and
our ultimate success as a nation.
In light of the above the report therefore recommends the following:
* improved co-ordination of the National Crime Prevention Strategy
That there was a need to review the National Crime Prevention Strategy, and
that the policies and legislations should be revisited to improve integration,
co-ordination and co-operation across the criminal justice system and ensure a
more holistic approach to the participation of the Secretariat for safety and
security in the integrated development programmes, especially with regard to
the role and empowerment of Community Police Forums.
In addition, that government should take the primary leadership
responsibility to create an enabling environment to review the criminal justice
system and explore how integration and co-ordination across the system could be
strengthened. It was suggested that the co-ordination should take place at the
office of the Deputy President of the country.
* Improved police efficiency and effectiveness
Immediate steps should be taken to improve police effectiveness and
efficiency, improve effectiveness of the courts, access to the courts, as well
as systems to monitor and hold institutions accountable. This would include
exploring mechanisms to create partnerships between communities and government
for purposes of providing security to communities.
* Improvement of crime statistics
While crime statistics are important and appreciated, it was also
acknowledged that they are also challenging, as they do not always reflect the
accurate state of affairs. For example, some statistics are only based on
reported cases, whereas there could be many unreported cases which may bring
different perspectives and understanding of what is going on in the country. To
that effect, the conference resolved that in order to give a more balanced
view, statistics should also consider, for example, cases that failed to make
prosecution to assess the level of effectiveness of the police.
* Review of alcohol advertising
Alcohol and drug abuse were highlighted as some of the challenges that
contributed to crime within families and in communities. It was reported that
in the Northern Cape, every sixth child in a classroom was born with Foetal
Alcohol Syndrome condition which may lead the child to become dependent on
alcohol and eventually commit crime. The advertisement of alcohol came up for
discussion, and it was agreed that advertisement of alcohol should be
educational and spell in clear detail the side effects of alcohol.
* Review of Batho Pele White Paper and corruption
The Batho Pele White Paper should be revisited to review the extent to which
there are service level agreements between different departments and how the
performance indicators for different departments were aligned with each other.
In addition, it was suggested that corruption should be dealt with by putting
in place some measures such as appointing appropriate people to relevant
positions to look into the salaries of the police.
* Review of economic policies
In order to address socio-economic concerns in the country, there is a need
to move from macro-economic strategies to micro-economic policies. This would
strengthen small and medium enterprises so that communities can benefit from
economic growth.
* Review of Crime Communication Strategy and improving stakeholder
relations
A communication strategy that would see the involvement of various
stakeholders in efforts to prevent and eradicate crime should be developed.
This would invariably strengthen relations amongst stakeholders and assist in
improving community participation. The communication strategy could also be
used to reach inmates in prisons where awareness about citizenship
responsibility would be raised. A monitoring and evaluation strategy could be
developed to assess the impact of the communication strategy and all other
interventions.
* Victims' empowerment
Victims' empowerment programmes should be improved. At the moment, victims
of crime feel left out, as there is a perception that the law favours the
rights of perpetrators at their expense. This perception and other concerns
that have led to the loss of confidence in the criminal justice system need to
be dealt with. In addition, the development of a Bill of Moral Ethics should be
considered as one of the priority areas.
* Education system
The recent escalation of violence in schools was highlighted as another area
needing attention. For example, there are dysfunctional schools which provide
fertile ground for crime and violent activities. Youth committees should be
resuscitating which were previously effective in bringing education and
instilling a culture of responsibility among young people.
* Reviewing Community Police Forums
That strategies developed should take into account the diversity in the
country. For example, the model of Community Police forums may need to be
reviewed to accommodate the various community peculiarities. In addition, it
was recommended that the government should create conducive environment for
people to report crime, especially in rural areas where there are no telephones
and accessible police stations.
Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
24 October 2007
