SAHRC drives media campaign
Braamfontein – SAHRC focuses on conciliation, mediation and negotiation to ensure that the rights of the people are not violated
The South African Human Rights Commission hosted a briefing session with the media at its Gauteng provincial offices in Braamfontein on 21 September, to discuss its future plans.
The commission said they are employing new methods aimed at engaging people in their quest to promote human rights issues as per their constitutional mandate.
One of the methods, according to the commission, is to partner with the South African mass media to afford people adequate information about services rendered by the commission.
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According to human rights officer, Zamakhize Mkhize, the commission, as a human rights body, working with the media is arguably important to implement its new ‘strategic stakeholder partnerships’.
Mkhize said the commission wants to promote human rights issues using mass media platforms as a tool to educate and inform people about its services.
Recently, the commission’s provincial office had a roadshow, a capacity-building seminar, as well as dialogues and information-sharing sessions in Tshwane.
“We also did strategic stakeholder engagement dialogues with women during Women’s Month, partnering with various organs of the society including the South African police and women’s organisations,” said Mkhize.
“So, now we want to work closely with the mass media to promote the culture of human rights; we want to make human rights newsworthy. The idea is to revolutionalise advocacy and communication around issues of human rights through a variety of high-impact engagement with the media,” she said.
“The commission recognises mass media as an advocacy tool. Among other tools they use to enable the commission human rights violation issues, is through media reports,” said the commission’s CEO, advocate Tseliso Thipanyane.
Thipanyane said they view a partnership with the media as a viable tool to engage the public.
The CEO said media play an integral role in informing the commission through their published reports about the violation of people’s rights.
“Some of the cases we deal with as a human rights commission, we learn about them through the media thus, we want to partner with you,” said Thipanyane.
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The South African Human Rights Commission’s provincial manager, Buang Jones said there are also other ways for the public to report their complaints.
He cited contacting the commission via fax, email, telephone or even visiting its offices countrywide.
Details: zmkhize@sahrc.org.za
