Minister in The Presidency, to the Seminar on Harmful Traditional Practices,
Premier Hotel, Pretoria
30 March 2009
Programme Director
His Excellency, Dr Otto Ditz, Ambassador of Austria
Justice Lillian Hofmeister
Khosi Kutama
The Commission for Gender Equality
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I want to take this opportunity at the end of this session to again thank
all participants today for the high level of deliberation and engagements. You
will agree with me that harmful traditional practice is very broad and needs
this kind of collaboration to come to a consensus on how we need to address the
issue. I agree with the Judge about the vagueness of the term and therefore the
need to contextualise the practice to be able to determine their harmfulness in
order to formulate appropriate responses.
I believe the discussions today have emerged with information that will
enrich the joint research undertaking with clear recommendations towards
measures to eliminate harmful practices. These recommendations can be taken
forward to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) process with conviction and confidence.
I want to once again place on record South Africa's sincere gratitude to be
part of such an undertaking with the Government of Austria. I believe that such
a research undertaking will not only provide the CEDAW Committee with issues to
take forward but that it will strengthen the attempts we are making in the
country to address and mitigate against practices that violate women's
fundamental human rights. In this regard, I must therefore offer our sincere
thanks for the financial sponsorship of this project, albeit a small
project.
The outcome of such a research should be widely communicated including and
involving all stakeholders within the National Gender Machinery, as the
findings that emerge will help us in meeting the responsibility of
implementation. The latter lies both, with the stakeholders present here today,
as well as will be extended to include communities, civil society and the
general public, including the media.
It must be noted that empowerment of women is the key to elimination of
harmful traditional practice, as empowered women are more likely to advocate
for their rights, dignity and freedom, as well as make more informed,
considered and confident decisions. There is a need to moderate harmful
traditional practice; however any compromise to womenâs decision making should
be strongly avoided. Young women and children, especially girls, should be
protected and allowed to develop and advance.
The collaboration we have entered into with the Government of Austria should
continue â where we are able to share experiences, lessons learned, best
practices and in general learn form each other. To His Excellency the
Ambassador I say a particular thank you for spending the day with us. To
Justice Hofmeister, I am sure you will be taking back with you a tremendous
amount of experience and shared knowledge to Austria. We thank you for visiting
the country and we hope that you will be part of the process when we look at
the research report.
Once the report is ready for validation, The Presidency will establish such
a meeting again so that we can analyse the findings together. Once again, thank
you all for participating in this process.
Good evening and aleuta continua.
Issued by: The Presidency
30 March 2009
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
