AfriForum address UN’s Forum on Minority Issues in Genève on farm murders and violence against minorities

AfriForum today attended the seventh session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Forum on Minority Issues in Genève, Switzerland, to address the Forum on the state of minority rights in South Africa. It is the fifth time that AfriForum is attending the annual session of this forum.

According to Alana Bailey, Deputy CEO of AfriForum responsible for international liaison, this year’s session focuses on preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes targeted against minorities. During the session, she submitted a report on the lack of protection for minorities in South Africa. She specifically emphasised the crisis level of attacks and murders committed against minority farming communities in the country. A comprehensive report on farm attacks was also presented to the UN’s Human Rights Council.

The focus of the Forum on Minority Issues is not the submission of complaints, but rather the finding of solutions. AfriForum inter alia proposed that minorities should be protected and their rights promoted by:

• allowing civil society to be positively involved in the prevention of the abuse of power against minorities and the promotion of their rights;
• ensuring the freedom and independence of the media and the judiciary;
• creating institutions such as the South African Article 9 institutions, but also safeguarding them from interference (for example by cadre deployment) and intimidation by authorities, political parties and other interest groups. They need to have access to methods to enforce their rulings, as well as sufficient funding. Financial management must be controlled stringently and immediate, effective action must be taken, should maladministration occur;
• applying international pressure when such measures are not in place.

According to Bailey, AfriForum’s presence at the session is part of a comprehensive strategy by means of which AfriForum increasingly internationalises the violation of human and minority rights in South Africa.