Stellenbosch University (SU) students wrote fifty-four letters for the “Write for Rights” initiative. This formed part of the #22YearsLater campaign held to commemorate Human Rights Day.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela, the former Public Protector of South Africa and current Chair in Social Justice in the Law Faculty of SU, was an invited guest and contributed a letter to their effort.
Madonsela did not address the crowd, but she spent time before and after the event to speak to students and take photographs with them.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela poses for a photograph with a student before the #22YearsLater event. PHOTO: Christi Nortier
Some of the letters written at the event were addressed to governments around the world asking them to release imprisoned human rights activists while others wrote to the activists themselves expressing support for them.
The event was organized by Amnesty International Stellenbosch, the Stellenbosch University Student Representative Council, the Stellenbosch University Transformation Office and the Listen, Live and Learn Initiative.
Organizers and attendees, including Thuli Madonsela, wore T-shirts with different human rights printed on them. PHOTO: Christi Nortier
Vuyokazi Hlwatika, the chairperson of Amnesty International Stellenbosch, said in her address that “Write for Rights” is a campaign used by Amnesty International chapters around the world.
They have seen success in the past with 2 million letters written and 48 human rights activists released because of the pressure the letters put on the governments.
Hlwatika says the letters make it obvious to the governments that the international community is aware of the detainments and want the activists to be released.
The letters were collected by the Amnesty International Stellenbosch chapter who will send the letters to the Amnesty International South Africa headquarters. From there they will be distributed to the relevant governments.
Students gathered on the Rooiplein to write their letters and share their own interpretations and experiences of human rights. PHOTO: Christi Nortier
The speaker of the SU student parliament, Anthony Martin Andrews, used his address to ask for a moment of silence for those who have had their human rights violated in the past.
He said, “In South Africa there are so many promises made. I think we should take every opportunity to be reminded of our rights. To see your peers choosing to wear the rights on their chests- out of everything they could wear- it starts a discussion. That is what we ought to do here.”
Thereafter, the discussion turned to more local human rights issues when an open mic was set up.
“Don’t be ignorant of the reality of the campus community. Understand that there are people from diverse backgrounds and levels of privilege.
“Acknowledge your privilege and use it to dismantle that privilege so that everyone can access the same rights. We all have the rights, but they are not everyone’s reality,” said Fanelesibonge Ndebele, a final year law student at SU.
Thuli Madonsela sat with students as they shared their experiences and thoughts about human rights issues on the Stellenbosch University campus and in South Africa. PHOTO: Christi Nortier
Madonsela expressed her support for the effort of students to start a discussion about human rights. She said an event such as this brings people from diverse backgrounds together in order to start creating a new culture which embraces diversity.
However, acceptance of difference is not where the work ends.
“I think the biggest challenge to Stellenbosch and other academic institutions is really equalizing opportunities. I think the one thing that has been done is that space is increasingly being made available for everyone regardless of race, gender, culture or any other difference. But, then there are barriers such as financial access and geographic access,” said Madonsela.
She said that an event such as this also makes the constitution more accessible. She said that “Instead of having high-profile political speeches about what happened in Sharpeville, they have brought it back to what is happening today on March 20, 2018.
“It is important to remember Sharpeville, but the best way we can repay the debt to those who died for freedom is to make sure there is freedom now and equal enjoyment of all human rights and freedoms,” she said.
Madonsela tweeted her support for the students just a few hours after the event. SOURCE: @ThuliMadonsela3
Madonsela used the campaign’s hashtag, #22YearsLater, in her tweet to wish all a happy Human Rights Day. SOURCE: @ThuliMadonsela3