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Programme Director, honoured guests, special award winners, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting me to be with you this evening. This is an especially important day on the South African Human Rights calendar, because the values that underpin our constitutional democracy are highlighted and given true effect by the effort and actions of certain remarkable individuals and institutions. On this 54th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and International Human Rights Day, we have gathered to pay tribute to a few of those many South Africans who continue to give life, form and context to our Constitution and the democracy that it underwrites. I am deeply honoured to be with you this evening and with the winners of the 2002 Human Rights and Democracy Awards.

For human rights activists around the world, the 10th of December also heralds the culmination of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women. How appropriate it is then that this period of concentrated focus on women's rights sees its conclusion in a celebration of these particular rights as human rights!

It is truly remarkable that just eight short years ago, our country was able to participate in this international day of celebration and commemoration for the first time. We sit here today as global citizens of standing with a wealth of human rights achievements in our wake and a horizon ahead of us filled with challenges. But, as proud as we are of these achievements, we must concede that it is not yet enough. We still have a long way to go. And the hardest part of the journey probably lies ahead of us.

In his State of the Nation Address in February this year, President Thabo Mbeki noted that the government had, as yet, failed to achieve the necessary progress on the human rights front, especially as it relates to poverty alleviation; a fact that is and will continue to impact negatively on South Africa's growth and development. He sounded a clarion call for even faster and more effective implementation of policies and practical programmes to facilitate sustainable development and the empowerment of our people.

The fundamental tenet that should drive these programmes is the right to human dignity and the expectation that this right should be respected and protected. The President and our nation will continue to be guided by our Constitution, which recognises that a human rights approach to development is presupposed if an improvement in the quality of our people's lives is to be the outcome.

These guiding principles give shape and form to the entire human rights and sustainable development debate in our country. They form the basis of Government's approach to addressing the enormous development backlogs faced by the majority of our citizens; backlogs that were caused by the intentional and active denial of the very rights we now seek to respect and protect.

But we cannot regard ourselves, simply due to this background, as unique. We have come to recognise that these acute development challenges also have strong regional and continental imperatives. As we watch the Burundi peace process unfold we should recall the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his observations on the impact of globalisation on human rights and on development in its broadest sense when he said:

"Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations."

More so than ever the international community is coming to recognise that if we uphold the precept of a shared and common humanity we must as nations take responsibility for one another's destinies. As South Africans we are not unfamiliar with this theme. In his response to recent media reports on the abuse of children, Deputy President Jacob Zuma called upon South Africans to adopt a "your child is my child" approach to the problem. Indeed the motto on our national Coat of Arms, !ke e: /xarra //ke, literally means "diverse people unite." It calls for unity in diversity and the recognition of a common humanity regardless of race, class or gender.

I alluded earlier on in my speech to the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign that started on the 25th of November and draws to a close today. If this campaign is to have any meaning at all we must build on the heightened public awareness that has been created over the past two weeks and integrate it into the daily lives of our children, women and men. We need as a society to translate the right to dignity into a real and daily experience for all South Africans, especially the vulnerable and marginalised.

Eight years into our democracy we have come to appreciate that while the struggle for political freedom was perhaps one of the most epic chapters of modern history, the struggle for social and economic freedom will prove to be one of the most challenging. We are - all of us - starkly aware of how class, race and gender conspire to place women, especially African, rural women at the very bottom of the human rights and development hierarchy. In fact, the compounded effect of patriarchy, colonialism and discrimination has left for African women a legacy of deprivation almost unparalleled in the rest of the world.

It is a fact that in the past decade the number of people living in poverty has increased. Moreover, poverty has increased disproportionately for women, and particularly for women in the developing countries, and that includes South Africa.

Despite the slew of enabling and empowering legislation that has been passed since 1994, women continue to face marginalisation and discrimination in their homes, communities and workplaces. The reason, of course, is that equality is not realised solely through legislation. Quality is a value that needs to be shared and upheld by the entire community - men and women alike. Institutions, too, need to internalise this value and make their environments affirming to all those that enter them. It's a paradigm shift - a mental gear change - that is required. The values of equality, respect and dignity need to take grip in the collective psyche if we are to put an end to the violence that is currently being directed at our country's women and children.

I would like to read an excerpt from a letter that I recently received from Dr Vincent Maphai, a well-known political scientist and business leader in which he said:

"Each time a child or woman is raped, it is as if I am personally exposed as an animal... I think as part of nation-building, we should identify these serious national issues and mobilise the country around them... We have seen the ability of our people to rise to the occasion when national duty calls."

And Dr Maphai is right; save for one thing. It is not only he that is personally tainted by these acts of violence. We are - all of us - denigrated by each incident of violence, abuse and hurt that is directed at our country's women and children. By signing the pledge to reject violence against women and children, South Africans from all walks of life have responded strongly to the call for an end to the suffering that has become the awful burden of our women and children.

And we all have a role to play. We should also intervene now before it is too late. We must show our commitment to ending the violence in the way that we raise our sons and daughters. We must be open and frank with them about their sexuality and their relationships with their peers. Surely the way we relate to our spouses speaks volumes to our children and sets the basis for their understanding of the power relations that exist between the sexes? We must see ourselves as the custodians of one another's dignity and this should guide us as we relate to our families, our neighbours and our communities.

Government has shown in the 30 Sexual Offences Courts and 3 Thuthuzela Rape Response Clinics dotted around the country, that when it responds in an integrated, situation-specific and supportive manner to the victims and survivors of violence, it can and does make a difference. It is, however, the many women and children who do not have access to these specialised facilities that often suffer at the hands of indifferent justice officials, unperturbed prosecutors and uncaring judicial officers. Our primary challenge is to maintain a constant, incremental and sustainable drive to expand the capacity and facilities to meet the needs of our people on the ground. Our absolute preoccupation is and must be to give substantive effect to the precious rights enshrined in our Constitution. We will only succeed in our task if we manage to close the gap between ambitious, legislative measures and tangible implementation and delivery on the ground.

The past two months have been an extremely busy time for us. Acting as the Lead Department for the Presidency in co-ordinating government's annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women, brings one into contact with a wide range of people from all walks of life. In a sense I have been conducting a personal poll on people's views as they relate to the rights of women and children. And I have learned some valuable lessons. My learning started when I asked our President to be the first person to sign our national pledge rejecting violence against women and children.

At the press conference our President observed that the act of signing was easy - it was committing to the pledge that was the important part. That was my first lesson. The pledge campaign was not really about the number of signatures collected over the sixteen days... More than anything else, the signature pledge campaign was about getting as many South Africans as possible to commit to exposing and opposing all forms of violence directed at women and children in the home, the workplace and in the community. This requires more than a notional familiarity with the issue; we must all be proactive about changing our attitudes and behaviours as they relate to women and children.

The second lesson that I learned is that if we use words and phrases too frequently we tend to become insensitised to their real meaning. Overuse renders words hollow or abstract. We should all feel something when we use the words "democracy", "human rights" and "Constitution". In the South African context, these words should evoke a sense of pride and even awe because we have, arguably, one of the finest and most empowering Constitutions in the world. And at its very heart lie the concepts of human dignity, democracy and human rights.

As our education campaign to raise awareness and galvanise a critical mass of our people around our constitutional rights gathers momentum, I believe that we need also to emphasise that human rights are inextricably inter-twined with responsibilities and obligations. A rights-based culture implies a society that cares for its fellow human beings, for the environment that surrounds it and for the future that its children will inherit. In his description of "ubuntu botho", Archbishop Desmond Tutu says:

"It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it its absent. It speaks about humanness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."

I believe that tonight's award ceremony pays tribute to people who recognise that their destinies are inter-linked with the destinies of their brothers and sisters and that they have the capacity to enrich their own human experience and the lives of others through their work and in their activities.

The values and practices championed by tonight's award winners in the three categories, including the special Duma Nokwe Award, are couched in a rich history of individuals whose lives inspired others to greatness and heroism. And as we draw strength from this rich tapestry let us remember the many unacknowledged sheroes and heroes who sacrificed life and limb in the pursuit of freedom and democracy.

Let us also acknowledge the many South Africans who continue in their daily lives to strive for a just and free society; free from poverty, violence, paternalism, discrimination and prejudice.

In conclusion, I would like to thank and commend the South African Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and their sponsors for making these awards possible and for fostering and deepening the culture of human rights and democracy in our national community.

Congratulations to all the winners tonight. You breathe life into our Constitution by touching and changing for the better the lives of the people around you.

I thank you

Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (http://www.doj.gov.za)