21st March marks Human Rights Day in South Africa. Universal human rights that were established in the 1948 UN convention after the second world war relate to “humanity, freedom, justice, and peace.” In the South Africa this day is intrinsically tied to the tragic events that took place in Sharpeville, Johannesburg on March 21st, 1960. …
Continue reading “Women’s Resistance – Remembering Ruth First”
This weekend the annual Rand Easter Show takes place in Johannesburg. It was during the Rand Show in 1960 that the first assassination attempt was made on the life of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, the former South African Prime Minister considered by many to be the grand ‘architect of apartheid’. Despite being born in the Netherlands, Hendrik Verwoerd …
Internationally Human Rights Day is celebrated on the 10th December each year in honour of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But in South Africa we commemorate Human Rights Day on the 21st March, in acknowledgment of the events that took place on this day in 1960, when the police opened fire …
