Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
STATEMENT BY DR WENDY ORR, CONVENOR OF THE WESTERN AND NORTHERN CAPE OFFICES OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
Wednesday, January 29,1997
The TRC is to hold a special hearing in June on the role of doctors and other health care professionals in perpetrating, colluding with and preventing human rights violations of the past.
Significant progress has been made in terms of the Health Care Sector's commitment to making submissions about its role during apartheid years. One of the special submissions planned for the hearing is on death of black consciousness leader, Steve Biko, in 1977.
Both the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA) and the South African Interim Medical and Dental Council (SAIMDC ) have employed researchers to go through their archives and assist in the drawing up of submissions.
In addition, the director-general of Mental Health, Dr Melvyn Freeman, has been appointed by Dr Olive Shisana, to coordinate the submission from the Department of Health. The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) will also submit a paper on the role of nurses. The Psychiatric Association (a sub-group of MASA) will also be making its own submission.
The Trauma Centre in Cape Town announced this week that it, too, in conjunction with the Dept of Community Health at UCT, will prepare a submission, based on their new research project called Human Rights and Medical Accountability in South Africa. The project will be sponsoring two full-time research fellowships for a two-year period to undertake this work, including the documentation of cases of human rights violations involving health professionals as victims, perpetrators and bystanders. The fellowships will probably be named after one of the victims of a gross human rights violation, but consultations with the families are still ongoing.
Representatives from the health sector resolved to go ahead with such a hearing at a meeting of role-players held in November last year in Cape Town. The coordinating committee feels, however, that Kwazulu/Natal and the Eastern Cape were not adequately represented at that meeting. As these were both areas in which a high incidence of violations took place, we feel it is vital that they be fully involved in this process. To this end, a meeting will be held on February 15 in Kwazulu/Natal to inform all relevant role-players of the hearing and its purpose. This meeting will also be attended by the province's MEC for Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, NGO's and academics. A similar meeting is planned for the Eastern Cape.
After the hearing, to be held in Cape Town, another national meeting will be convened in order to discuss the submissions and the way forward. The submissions will also be used for a chapter in the final report of the Commission.
The hearing is provisionally scheduled for 17 and 18 June this year. We have asked for the submissions to reach us a month before the hearing (16 May 1997), to give us adequate opportunity to study them. Ms Mary Rayner of Amnesty International and Dr Robert Lawrence of the AAAS have indicated their willingness to assist the TRC in this process. Submissions will be accepted from all individuals and institutions wishing to make a statement on the role of the health care sector in human rights abuses during the years under review (March 1960 to May 1994).
We have drawn up guidelines to assist in the preparation of submissions, be they from organisations, individuals or groups. These include the definition of abuse, ethical obligations of health professionals, links between health professional ethics and human rights, why abuse occurs and recommendations for preventing future abuses. Copies of the guidelines are available from the Commission's Cape Town offices.
The TRC wishes to use this opportunity to state our appreciation for MASA's assistance in recruiting doctors who are willing to provide free medical care and advice to victims who approach the TRC. Referrals to these doctors are being made by the Cape Town office and this has resulted in more and more doctors in the Western and Northern Cape offering their services. The commission feels the medical profession is starting to show its commitment to healing the wounds of the past and we are most thankful for this.
For more information, please call Christelle Terreblanche - 0824588461