Campaign Launched to Help Stateless People Become Citizens

The seventh Human Rights Festival held at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg kicked off the weekend-long festivities with people rhythmically banging drums in unison.

• Hundreds of people joined the celebrations at the seventh Human Rights Festival at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg over the weekend.
• This year’s festival showcased a variety of events and performances, including a book fair, a film festival, panel discussions, and more.
• During the festival’s activities on Friday, Lawyers for Human Rights launched its statelessness campaign titled Her Document, Her Dignity Campaign.
• The event ended with “We the people walk” — a symbolic 8km walk through the streets of Joburg.

Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg was a hive of activity at the weekend as hundreds of people joined events and celebrations at the seventh Human Rights Festival.

The theme for this year’s four-day festival was A just and inclusive South Africa. It aimed to increase understanding of human rights and to promote the importance of being active citizens.

During the festival’s activities on Friday, Lawyers for Human Rights hosted a session at the Women’s Jail Lekgotla where they launched the organisation’s statelessness campaign titled Her Document, Her Dignity Campaign.

Bringing together activists and artists from across the country, the festival showcased a variety of events and performances, including a book fair, a children’s village, a film festival and sessions where panelists discussed issues like healthcare, education, and the climate crisis.

As part of the opening, dozens of people rhythmically banged about a thousand drums in unison to raise awareness for the struggles of people living in Palestine, Congo, Sudan and those closer to home such as families in Stilfontein.

“Congolese people are dying, and no one seems to care about it. Everyone that goes there is just going to extract blood minerals and not many people are speaking out against the war,” said Bahebwa Kabambire from Congolese Solidarity Campaign.

“We have to find creative ways to continue to build solidarity at home and around the world so that we can combat the hatred and bigotry that seems to be spreading. It’s really inspiring to be here and to see all the work that people are doing to try and change things for the better,” said attendee Judy Molotsi.

Launch of statelessness campaign

South Africa has yet to sign two international conventions on statelessness — the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Activists argue this harms many people who are stateless.

Stateless people are not recognised as citizens by any country, explained head of Lawyers for Human Rights’ Statelessness Unit, Thandeka Chauke.

On Friday, the Lawyers for Human Rights launched the Her Document, Her Dignity Campaign in a bid to get the government to take action to end statelessness.

Chauke said the campaign will focus on statelessness for women. “We are not saying men don’t experience statelessness; both men and women do. However, the reality is that women bear a disproportionate share of these burdens,” said Chauke. She added that women who are stateless and undocumented are more vulnerable.

The campaign also highlights how discrimination, bureaucracy, and historical injustices often leave mostly women and their families without legal recourse.

The Her Document Her Dignity Campaign uses the experiences of three women to illustrate how devastating being stateless can be. These three women have to date not been able to make crucial life choices. They continue to face stigma because they are stateless.

Lawyers for Human Rights joined activists and supporters during the solidarity walk.

Key demands of Her Document, Her Dignity Campaign are for the government to make the birth registration process easier, to enable undocumented mothers to register their children without hindrances, and to make available a legal framework for stateless people to secure citizenship.

The campaign also urges South Africa to sign the AU Protocol to reinforce its commitment to gender equality and human rights.

The event ended with the “We the people walk” — a symbolic 8km walk with hundreds of participants through the streets of Joburg.

Hundreds of people joined the walk through to raise awareness of human rights.

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