Public officials to get rights lessons

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says it has entered into an agreement with human rights advocacy group, Street Law South Africa to offer training to public officials to enable them to understand the basic tenets of human rights and improve their conduct when dealing with public.

SAHRC regional manager for the Free State Buang Jones said this was found necessary following growing complaints from people who were not happy with the way they were treated by some government officials when they required their services.

Among the public officials that people were most concerned with were the police, home affairs officials, public health workers and other officials who work directly with the public.

Jones said the aim of the training was to raise awareness on basic human rights among public officials so that they understand the basic human rights of everyone and thereby help them improve their conduct when dealing people.

“We have signed a memorandum of understanding with Street Law South Africa in a bid to raise awareness on basic human rights among public servants,” said Jones during a networking session with the media at the Bloemfontein offices.

“We plan to roll out the training in the last quarter of this financial year. Our aim is encourage effective implementation of human rights in all sectors of government,” he added.

He said they were also planning to have similar training with the South African Local Government Association so that they can get maximum co-operation from councillors and council employees when investigating cases in municipalities.

“We are not just there to investigate cases. We are also involved in awareness programmes because they help people understand their rights. We have seen in recent years, more people coming forward to lay their complaints and we believe this could be as a results of people knowing their rights,” said Jones.

Street Law SA is a non-profit organisation that specialises in presenting participatory legal, human rights and democracy education. According to its website, the organisation provides opportunities for training in democracy, participatory development and policy development.

The organisation also provides preventative legal education to both formal and informal communities, promoting fundamental rights, freedoms, participation and democratic cultures.