The OSISA offices in Johannesburg have moved from Braamfontein to Rosebank. Contact details are now as follows:

Telephone: (0)10 590 2600
Fax: (0)10 590 2699

International code: +27 for South Africa

1st Floor President Place
1 Hood Avenue/ 148 Jan Smuts Avenue (corner Bolton Road)
Rosebank

PO Box 678
Wits 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa

Language Rights (November 2008)

Although language is as old as human society, it is interesting to note that an epistemic approach to it, especially from a human rights perspective, is not equally old. It is only recently that a growing interest in language rights among academic institutions, development planners and even human rights activists has been discernible. Part of the reason for this is that language has been so much part of human existence that it has been overly taken for granted. So central and core is it to human life that it has tended to be ignored.

Yet that very centrality of language in human existence should warrant serious consideration; even enough to firmly place it among the fundamental and inalienable rights that need to be protected at all costs. Human rights practice, however, seems to indicate the contrary. Human rights discourses have not placed much emphasis on language rights. The subject remains largely an academic discipline offered by a few institutions and universities on the continent, and even then, has (for a very long time) tended to focus more on phonology, morphology and syntax than on the socio-political aspects of language. It is only relatively recently that the study of language has begun to include the equally critical dimensions of discourse, the socio-political and the overall impact of language on human relationships. Not surprisingly, language as a human right has therefore remained on the margins of the rights that governments are often hard pressed to guarantee and protect.

This issue of OPENSPACE explores and and makes a case for why language rights should occupy a higher seat in the hierarchy of rights. Especially important is the fact that language rights form the fabric of all other rights: that is all first, second and third generation rights. For instance, civic and political rights – and indeed the right to life itself – are only as useful as they are effectively communicated (through language) and understood by both individuals and groups.

End Impunity on Women’s Rights Violations in Eastern DRC

We represent women’s human rights organisations and their NGO partners in Africa. Our work on a daily basis confronts gender inequality and seeks to ensure the protection of women’s rights and bodily integrity. Nowhere are these rights more violated today than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). From 21 September to 1 October 2008, our organisations were in fact in the DRC as part of a delegation of women from the African continent, and witnessed first- hand some of these challenges, and received testimonies from women survivors of these violations.

Citizenship (June 2008)

For a long time citizenship was just another word in the dictionary; neutral and not occupying a significant space in political and socio-economic discourses. However, with the rise of the contemporary nation state, citizenship has acquired new significance; constructing who belongs and who doesn’t, and who has access to certain political and socio-economic rights and privileges.

With the increasing focus on electoral multi-party democracy and the development of human rights discourses, the term has become emotive and highly contentious socially and politically the world over. As such, the term has found a place in debates on civic and political rights, economic justice, gender and women’s rights, to list just a few. It has become a critical determinant of the extent to which one can enjoy certain rights, especially within the framework of a nation state. Issues of discrimination and entitlement to services and to political participation and other rights become important.

An audit on citizenship and discrimination conducted by the Open Society Justice Initiative in 2004, made an important observation that “the advent of multi-party democracy in many African states in the 1990s heightened the political significance of distinguishing citizens from non-citizens, and led to a marked increase in attempts to denationalise political opponents or even entire ethnic and social groups.” Because of this, and especially in Africa, citizenship has become a source of tensions, in some cases resulting in serious socio-political and ethno-political conflicts, some of which have led to disastrous wars and genocides.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

On the 16th of March 2008, the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) convened a civil society roundtable to discuss the impact of revenue flows from natural resources on poverty eradication in SADC. This followed the critical observation that the proceeds from exploitation of natural resources in general and extractive industries in particular, are not finding their way into poverty eradication programmes in the region. As a result, most of Southern Africa is trapped in the “resource rich- poor countries” dichotomy.

"We have degrees in violence": a report on torture and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe (December 2007)

Since early 2007 Zimbabwe has been subject to an upsurge in political violence that has seriously undermined the democratic process and created a presumption that elections will not be free and fair. State-sponsored violence directed toward any individuals or groups who are perceived to be critical of President Robert Mugabe, his government or his policies, manifests a strategy to demobilise Zimbabweans from mounting or supporting an organised opposition campaign.

The international community and Southern African Development Community (SADC) have attempted to play a role in encouraging a democratic process by introducing South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, as mediator between the ruling and opposition parties. However, the international community remains ineffective in its efforts to stop state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

Available in pdf format [959KB].

International Institutions in Africa (November 2007)

This edition of OPENSPACE grapples with the notion of internationalism, how it has played out at various levels of socio-political organisation across the world and the implications this has had for African development and governance structures.

Internationalism is defined as a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all. Even in its most benign forms, the move towards economic and political cooperation often requires careful balancing, including that issues of particiapation, access to resources, good governance, and respect for human dignity and rights are factored into the grand ideals of the internationalists... it is often as a result of (or in response to) such processes that some societies tend to become either more closed or open, as some of the articles in this edition attest to.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

Constitutional Review and Reform: and the Adherence to Democratic Principles in Constitutions in Southern African Countries

(by Louise Olivier, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-620-38911-2)

Constitutionalism requires that a democratic and accountable government has constitutional limits that check its power, and that create the framework for governing a democracy. A country's constitution defines, at least theoretically, its commitment to constitutionalism. Constitutions define the polity, establish the rules and limitations of the relationship between the state and its citizens and they fix and reflect a social contract that underpins the functioning of organised society. Constitution-building has become an essential component of the road maps to peace and democracy in conflict, post-conflict, and transitional settings.