Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1996
The TRC will be facilitating a consultative workshop on Saturday, 23 November, to reach consensus on the process through which the health care sector (particularly nurses, doctors and psychologists) can examine the role which it played and/or failed to play in the human rights abuses of the past.
One sector of the profession has been calling for a separate truth commission for doctors, but there is resistance to this amongst other groupings. The workshop aims to reach agreement between the various major role players, which we hope will assist the TRC in fulfilling its mandate of examining the context and circumstances in which human rights violations took place in the period under review (1960 to 1993) and particularly in making recommendations specific to the health care sector on institutional, educational and other measures which can be implemented to prevent human rights violations in the future.
Health care institutions and organisations to attend include: Representatives from the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA), the South African Interim Medical and Dental Council (SAIMDC), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the Psychologists Society of South Africa (Psyssa), the South African Military Medical Services (SAMMS) and others from the progressive health sector.
The workshop is convened by TRC Commissioner Dr Wendy Orr, deputy chair of the Commissions Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee, assisted by Commissioner Glenda Wildschut.
This meeting will be in our Cape Town head office and will be closed to the public and media. A statement will be issued afterwards and if possible a press conference will be held.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL CHRISTELLE TERREBLANCHE AT 0824588461.