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South African Human Rights Commission Crime Conference Report on "Crime and its impact on Human Rights: Ten Years of the Bill of Rights".
24 October 2007

The South African Human Rights Commission crime report findings and recommendations launched today recommended several measures which will hopefully crate a better and more holistic understanding of the complexity of crime.

According to Mr Jody Kollapen Chairperson of Human Rights Commission; over the past few years, South Africa has witnessed high levels of crime. Manifestations of crime are happening at levels that impact seriously on individuals and institutions and impair their ability to enjoy the human rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

He adds that violent crimes affect the right to life, they affect personal security; they affect dignity and bodily integrity of its many victims. Sexual crimes against women represent in the words of the Constitutional Court "the most formidable challenge to the self-determination of women, while incidence of child rape and abuse deny to children the special protection afforded to them by the Constitution". On the other hand, non-violent crime also wreaks its own damage and corruption, in particular, its devastating impact on social and economic development. Whether it relates to social security grants, school feeding schemes or the building of homes, corruption inevitably deprives beneficiaries of the services they would ordinarily be entitled to.

"Crime also affects the moral fibre of the nation, especially the morale of victims. It has also seriously prejudiced South Africa's profile at the international level. Crime has led to perceptions that the Constitution as well as the criminal justice system are criminal-friendly. There are perceptions that the transformation of the criminal justice system to bring it in line with international human rights norms and standards hampers law enforcement agencies to effectively deal with crime in the country. These perceptions have led to the loss of faith in the entire criminal justice system to prevent and combat crime in the country," he says.

Mr Kollapen further says the challenge of crime and the effective response to it requires a co-ordinated, effective and spirited response. All South Africans share the responsibility of fighting crime in varying degrees. It is therefore critical that the commitment to a partnership amongst various stakeholders in the fight against crime is made real. Measures aimed at eradicating crime must be shared as part of a vision and commitment to deal with this formidable threat to our human rights culture, our moral destiny and our ultimate success as a nation.

In light of the above the report therefore recommends the following:

* improved co-ordination of the National Crime Prevention Strategy

That there was a need to review the National Crime Prevention Strategy, and that the policies and legislations should be revisited to improve integration, co-ordination and co-operation across the criminal justice system and ensure a more holistic approach to the participation of the Secretariat for safety and security in the integrated development programmes, especially with regard to the role and empowerment of Community Police Forums.

In addition, that government should take the primary leadership responsibility to create an enabling environment to review the criminal justice system and explore how integration and co-ordination across the system could be strengthened. It was suggested that the co-ordination should take place at the office of the Deputy President of the country.

* Improved police efficiency and effectiveness

Immediate steps should be taken to improve police effectiveness and efficiency, improve effectiveness of the courts, access to the courts, as well as systems to monitor and hold institutions accountable. This would include exploring mechanisms to create partnerships between communities and government for purposes of providing security to communities.

* Improvement of crime statistics

While crime statistics are important and appreciated, it was also acknowledged that they are also challenging, as they do not always reflect the accurate state of affairs. For example, some statistics are only based on reported cases, whereas there could be many unreported cases which may bring different perspectives and understanding of what is going on in the country. To that effect, the conference resolved that in order to give a more balanced view, statistics should also consider, for example, cases that failed to make prosecution to assess the level of effectiveness of the police.

* Review of alcohol advertising

Alcohol and drug abuse were highlighted as some of the challenges that contributed to crime within families and in communities. It was reported that in the Northern Cape, every sixth child in a classroom was born with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome condition which may lead the child to become dependent on alcohol and eventually commit crime. The advertisement of alcohol came up for discussion, and it was agreed that advertisement of alcohol should be educational and spell in clear detail the side effects of alcohol.

* Review of Batho Pele White Paper and corruption

The Batho Pele White Paper should be revisited to review the extent to which there are service level agreements between different departments and how the performance indicators for different departments were aligned with each other. In addition, it was suggested that corruption should be dealt with by putting in place some measures such as appointing appropriate people to relevant positions to look into the salaries of the police.

* Review of economic policies

In order to address socio-economic concerns in the country, there is a need to move from macro-economic strategies to micro-economic policies. This would strengthen small and medium enterprises so that communities can benefit from economic growth.

* Review of Crime Communication Strategy and improving stakeholder relations

A communication strategy that would see the involvement of various stakeholders in efforts to prevent and eradicate crime should be developed. This would invariably strengthen relations amongst stakeholders and assist in improving community participation. The communication strategy could also be used to reach inmates in prisons where awareness about citizenship responsibility would be raised. A monitoring and evaluation strategy could be developed to assess the impact of the communication strategy and all other interventions.

* Victims' empowerment

Victims' empowerment programmes should be improved. At the moment, victims of crime feel left out, as there is a perception that the law favours the rights of perpetrators at their expense. This perception and other concerns that have led to the loss of confidence in the criminal justice system need to be dealt with. In addition, the development of a Bill of Moral Ethics should be considered as one of the priority areas.

* Education system

The recent escalation of violence in schools was highlighted as another area needing attention. For example, there are dysfunctional schools which provide fertile ground for crime and violent activities. Youth committees should be resuscitating which were previously effective in bringing education and instilling a culture of responsibility among young people.

* Reviewing Community Police Forums

That strategies developed should take into account the diversity in the country. For example, the model of Community Police forums may need to be reviewed to accommodate the various community peculiarities. In addition, it was recommended that the government should create conducive environment for people to report crime, especially in rural areas where there are no telephones and accessible police stations.

Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
24 October 2007