Cape Town - In commemoration of World Day for International Justice on 17 July 2020, Community Chest, in partnership with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), has launched the second in its series of online publications.
Following the theme of the Community Chest’s inaugural World Hunger Day publication in May 2020, the current work, entitled “ Serving Justice In A Time Of Global Crisis: Having Inconvenient Conversations” focuses on the intersectionality of Justice, Human Rights and Development.
It is co-edited by Community Chest’s Director of the Sediba Global Partnership Office, Zenariah Barends, and IJR Executive Director, Stan Henkeman.
Barends said: “The Task Force for Justice in their Justice for All 2019 Report indicated that 1.5 billion people experienced a failure in justice, which affected marginalised communities in particular, which has since been further exacerbated by the Cpvid-19 pandemic.”
In South Africa, this failure has been demonstrated by the actions of members of the South African security forces and law enforcement agencies, who were deployed at the start of the lockdown to enforce regulations,” said Barends.
Co-editor, IJR Executive Director, Stan Henkeman stated: “The contributions to the publication have been made by a range of organisations and individuals concerned with justice in South Africa and universally. It is said that a vision consists of two components, a dissatisfaction with the status quo and a quest for an alternative.
“The contributions all articulate a compelling vision for a different and more just society.
“South Africa has recorded an extraordinarily high number of arrests during lockdown, all of Black people, as a result of actions by security forces. The food security crisis, evictions of vulnerable people, increased loss of income and unemployment, have worsened during the pandemic and all speak to the nature of an unjust system, which does not prioritise the wellbeing and dignity of people,” Henkeman concludes.
The publication grapples with the inconvenience of a justice system placed squarely into the eye of the storm of a global pandemic crisis, how it has reacted and what lessons were learnt. It challenges the way we think and act, as individuals as well as at an organisational level. And it explores what structural, behavioural changes and actions are needed to challenge the status quo and transform the system of justice.
The publication contains contributions from prominent South African and international civil society thought leaders with justice as their core focus; academics across South African and foreign universities; legal experts in justice and jurisprudence; as well as leaders in humanitarian, civil and constitutional rights law.
The publication received contributions from Black Sash; The Warehouse Trust; The Justice Desk; IJR, Lawyers for Human Rights; Community Advice Offices South Africa; Africans Rising for Justice; Peace and Dignity; Community Chest and its Sediba Global Partnership Office.
The World Day for International Justice Publication was launched virtually via an online event at noon on Friday, 17 July 2020.