The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) in partnership with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, hereby invites the media to the roll out of the new "Access to Justice and Promotion of Constitutional Rights" programme.
Civil society organisations in the North West have been invited to information and capacity building workshops on the new programme. These workshops would be rolled out in all the nine provinces between early February and mid April 2010.
Due to a number of reasons, the funding environment for civil society has been challenging in the past few years with the consequence that as lot of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had to either scale down their activities or close shop completely. This new programme hopes to contribute towards the revival and capacity of civil society in the human rights sector.
Aims and objectives of the programme
The overall aim of programme is to contribute to the promotion, protection and realisation of rights established in the Constitution through three key objectives:
* improving access to justice
* raising awareness of constitutional rights
* strengthening democracy through partnerships with civil society
Financial support from the European Union
The European Union has allocated a sum of 25 million Euros towards supporting the programme, which will be disbursed over a three years period under the modality of sector budget support (SBS) for the period 2009 to 2012. Of this amount, the local delegation of the European Union will be responsible for disbursing five million Euros directly to civil society. The balance of 20 million Euros will be allocated by the FHR under the Access to Justice and Promotion of Constitutional Rights programme.
Why this programme?
The democratically elected government of South Africa has committed itself to redressing inequalities and improving the lives of its citizens, one way of doing this has been through promoting and entrenching a human rights culture. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development plays a central role with its main objective being "Justice and Constitutional Development, promoting human rights and access to justice for all: enhancing organisational efficiency and transforming justice, state and society" with a particular focus on impoverished and marginalised communities.
This is set out in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development's medium term strategic framework (MTSF) for the period 2009 to 2010. In 2005, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) conducted a review of South Africa and concluded that the country exhibited highly uneven levels of rights awareness in society and that ensuring access to justice for poor and marginalised communities remained a major challenge. The APRM noted the different roles played by government and civil society organisations and recommended that government should partner with civil society in playing a more active role to address this situation.
The government of South Africa has consistently recognised that a viable independent civil society is integral to building a vibrant democracy, and as a result Government has committed 25 percent of all development aid to the funding and strengthening of civil society to ensure its sustainability.
Similarly, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development acknowledges that a strong, independent and efficient civil society is an essential partner in the strengthening of South Africa's constitutional democracy. Given that government continues to face challenges in operating these commitments, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has dedicated itself to partnering with civil society to achieve its goals.
The department has developed a policy framework to facilitate partnerships and policy dialogues with civil society and this framework, together with the MTSF forms the basis for the programme.
Numerous activities to strengthen constitutional democracy by civil society will be supported under this programme. The foundation intends to release its calls for proposals and expressions of interest in respect of the new programme from February 2010.
The workshop will share with civil society organisations the objectives of the new programme, areas to be supported and the process to access funding. Furthermore, an initial needs assessment process for capacity building would be undertaken. The workshop would be addressed by senior staff from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the FHR.
Details of the rollout programme are as follows:
Date: 14 April 2010
Venue: Orion Safari Lodge, Rustenburg
Time: 09h00 to 15h00
For comments call:
Andile Mngxitama
Cell: 082 742 9660
Deborah Byrne
Cell: 079 893 2912
Enver Moothoosamy
Cell: 072 381 6970
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
12 April 2010
