Date: 21/03/2004
Source: New National Party
Title: van Schalkwyk: Celebrating National Human Rights Day: Health, Safety and Jobs
South Africa will only truly be able to celebrate Human Rights Day when South Africans in every community, and of every age, have a real opportunity to enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by our Constitution. The NNP is particularly concerned that our most vulnerable groups – like women and children – often draw few benefits from these protections.
As we celebrate human rights today, we must remember that more than 106 000 South African children under the age of 5 died in 2000 alone. Our celebrations must also be tempered by the knowledge that the leading cause of death, in more than 40% of cases (almost 43 000 children), was HIV/Aids.
More than 4500 children died as a direct result of malnutrition and poverty, more than 1200 through traffic accidents, and another 1100 through fires. As children get older in South Africa, the picture changes – with violence and murder taking a more significant toll.1 From 2001 to 2002 there were 228 children reported murdered, and 377 children who were the reported victims of attempted murder. More alarming still is the fact that only about 15 out of every 100 cases of child abuse are reported.
In the case of women, the latest research by Amnesty International has confirmed what the NNP has been saying all along - that the levels of violence against women in South Africa demand immediate action. The research found that in South Africa an average of 147 women are raped every day. It is common cause that every six days a woman is killed by her husband or partner. The NNP believes that the health, and the safety and security of all South Africans – especially that of women and children – is non-negotiable.
This is why our party has pushed so hard for the fastest possible roll-out of anti-Aids drugs in South Africa. Under the NNP in the Western Cape Government, we have shown that children need not die if their mothers are HIV-positive. With the correct treatment the transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies can be reduced to below 10%. The NNP believes that, with an immediate roll-out of this programme, we can effectively prevent children in South Africa being born HIV-positive by 2007. Our children can and must be saved.
The NNP also believes strongly in the need for harsher sentencing of criminals (including the reinstatement of the death penalty for cases of murder and aggravated rape), the need for more specialised courts, and for a much wider awareness of protection orders as a means of protecting especially women from repeated abuse.
Part of protecting the rights of our people is also to ensure that those who have been the victims of, or witnesses to crime, receive assistance. Medical costs, funerals, counselling, lost working days, damage to property and many other costs often cripple families. It has been found that a fund to compensate all victims of crime would be almost totally unaffordable in South Africa, costing in the region of R5 billion per year. But the NNP believes that we must make a start – at the very least to offer limited support to the families of those who have been killed by violent crime, and especially who are left without breadwinners or are in need of counselling.
Ultimately it is poverty that lies at the root of almost all human rights issues in South Africa. When communities and families are unable to feed their children because they are unable to find work, crime and violence are often the result. Hunger and malnutrition also go hand in hand with poverty. This is why the NNP’s plan for economic growth and job creation will create when implemented at least 1 million new permanent jobs by 2008 and achieve a growth rate of 4% within 3 years.
The NNP knows that human rights can never be just words on paper - they are what Government must Guarantee. This is why the NNP works with the ANC in Government – to ensure that the priorities, needs and interests of our supporters in every community have a voice in Government.
Source: New National Party
Title: van Schalkwyk: Celebrating National Human Rights Day: Health, Safety and Jobs
South Africa will only truly be able to celebrate Human Rights Day when South Africans in every community, and of every age, have a real opportunity to enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by our Constitution. The NNP is particularly concerned that our most vulnerable groups – like women and children – often draw few benefits from these protections.
As we celebrate human rights today, we must remember that more than 106 000 South African children under the age of 5 died in 2000 alone. Our celebrations must also be tempered by the knowledge that the leading cause of death, in more than 40% of cases (almost 43 000 children), was HIV/Aids.
More than 4500 children died as a direct result of malnutrition and poverty, more than 1200 through traffic accidents, and another 1100 through fires. As children get older in South Africa, the picture changes – with violence and murder taking a more significant toll.1 From 2001 to 2002 there were 228 children reported murdered, and 377 children who were the reported victims of attempted murder. More alarming still is the fact that only about 15 out of every 100 cases of child abuse are reported.
In the case of women, the latest research by Amnesty International has confirmed what the NNP has been saying all along - that the levels of violence against women in South Africa demand immediate action. The research found that in South Africa an average of 147 women are raped every day. It is common cause that every six days a woman is killed by her husband or partner. The NNP believes that the health, and the safety and security of all South Africans – especially that of women and children – is non-negotiable.
This is why our party has pushed so hard for the fastest possible roll-out of anti-Aids drugs in South Africa. Under the NNP in the Western Cape Government, we have shown that children need not die if their mothers are HIV-positive. With the correct treatment the transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies can be reduced to below 10%. The NNP believes that, with an immediate roll-out of this programme, we can effectively prevent children in South Africa being born HIV-positive by 2007. Our children can and must be saved.
The NNP also believes strongly in the need for harsher sentencing of criminals (including the reinstatement of the death penalty for cases of murder and aggravated rape), the need for more specialised courts, and for a much wider awareness of protection orders as a means of protecting especially women from repeated abuse.
Part of protecting the rights of our people is also to ensure that those who have been the victims of, or witnesses to crime, receive assistance. Medical costs, funerals, counselling, lost working days, damage to property and many other costs often cripple families. It has been found that a fund to compensate all victims of crime would be almost totally unaffordable in South Africa, costing in the region of R5 billion per year. But the NNP believes that we must make a start – at the very least to offer limited support to the families of those who have been killed by violent crime, and especially who are left without breadwinners or are in need of counselling.
Ultimately it is poverty that lies at the root of almost all human rights issues in South Africa. When communities and families are unable to feed their children because they are unable to find work, crime and violence are often the result. Hunger and malnutrition also go hand in hand with poverty. This is why the NNP’s plan for economic growth and job creation will create when implemented at least 1 million new permanent jobs by 2008 and achieve a growth rate of 4% within 3 years.
The NNP knows that human rights can never be just words on paper - they are what Government must Guarantee. This is why the NNP works with the ANC in Government – to ensure that the priorities, needs and interests of our supporters in every community have a voice in Government.
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