FW DE Klerk Foundation to release Human Rights Report Card

0:00Well, let's get into our talking point for this early morning. The FW declared foundation will release its report on the state of basic rights in South Africa today. The foundation launches its human rights card every year with the intention to help South Africans understand what the country's human rights landscape actually looks like. Whether it is from governance to crime and service delivery, also including economic stabilization, dignity, protections, and deep trafficking enforcement. Well, we discussed the report card with the foundations, Dariela Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Morning, tonight and morning listeners. Dariela, hearing us loud and clear. Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me, tonight? If you're back on it on a different line, Dariela,

1:01what is the purpose of the human rights report card that is being released on the eve of human rights day, which is on Saturday? Talk to us a bit about that card. It's been a number of years now that the human rights report card has been released. And how is it been failing for all these years? So I've been doing well and just going from strength to strength to need. I think that listeners will find that this year's report card is the most wide and in-breast research report card that we've ever been able to do as a foundation. And it really looks at the practical enjoyment of the rights and freedoms we are guaranteed as South Africans in our Constitution. So it's all wonderful that the Constitution has a beautiful bill of rights with these rights and freedoms written down. But unless they are actually being practically enjoyed in South Africans every day life,

2:01then they are just a piece of paper. And I just want to say to listeners, human rights, they are not abstract ideas. They are the safe communities we live in. They are the water that runs from our taps, the ambulance that gets there on time when we have medical emergency. The street that is safe for us to walk in at night. And the functioning school that we can send our children to to successfully learn to read and master basic mathematics. So human rights are very practical things. That you know the key issues that you spend some time on as set out in the report card. I mean, you listed a number of key issues here. You show the report card as all these details. But for this year, 2026, were you basically focusing on the number of human rights and related issues?

3:03So to make we focused on the 2025 developments. So the report card sticks kicks off with the what happened in 2025 when it comes to the CS politics, crime and corruption may come in international relations. Because if human rights are these practical things, then they get affected by all of this. And then we go index into each and every right. And importantly, this year's report card also covers a list of the foundations, recommendations that we made throughout the year last year to help improve the enjoyment of rights. So definitely it is a very wide research, very useful, very practical tool. So researchers detailed the top 10 rights

4:04that's in 2025. What were those top 10 rights that are offered concern? So first of all, and this will come as no surprise to South Africans, the right to life. So it was identified as the right that is the most under threat and it experiences significant threats from the amounts of crime that we have in South Africa. Now, what came from our research is that murder, did decrease by almost 10% loss, judge made. But the literality for people continues to be one of high insecurity and persistent violence. So even though murder went down by 10% last year, and I want to say that it's still very high at 65 people murdered per day, even without 10% decrease.

5:07What we found is that attempted murder and assault with intent to cause groovy as body harm. So commonly known as assault to the age. Genetics, they both jumped and increased by a third. So one could argue that actually what we are just seeing is less successful murders, not that murder itself might have decreased if that makes sense. And then, of course, I think everyone knows that kidnappings are becoming more and more of a problem. The years continue to increase to approximately 18,500 last year. And gang violence, which the foundation has called repeatedly forward to declared a national disaster the way gender-based violence is emphasized was remains particularly especially in the Western Cape. So all of this lead to the right to life being greeted as very bad deteriorating. And I should say here that missile glimpses last year,

6:11that focused operations like the government's operations Chanela, which produced roughly 15,000 arrests per week, show that when we actually have sustained, focused, well-resourced policing, we can dismantle organized crime, protect lives, and begin to restore public trust. But we have not yet seen something like Operation Chanela had a national scale. And the foundation really believes that combining real-time data, hotspot focus joint operations, and stronger policing and prosecution will turn arrests into lasting reduction in these violence. Daniela, finally, of course, as comprehensive as reports may be including the one coming out of the FWDClack Foundation. Where does this research go? I mean, of course, what would understand South Africans

7:12are eager to see all of this information at work make some lasting impact in their lives. How do you see these reports going about doing that? So this report is a resource for government, for civil society organizations, for religious leaders, for journalists, and radio stations like Radio Islam, for parents, for schools, and for anyone who views themselves as a South African who wants to see their country improve. It is a useful source of information. And from the foundation side, we will continue to lobby and share this as far and wide with government and decision makers to make sure that they actually see the entire picture, because that's exactly what this report card is. It's an entire picture of what human rights and their practical enjoyment look like last year. And on top of that, on top of being very well factually researched,

8:17it contains what the foundations believe really practical solutions that are immediately implementable to be able to, for example, improve the enjoyment of the right to life. Deliella, Ella Beck, thank you for joining us. It really started to national this morning and keeping us updated of matters coming out of your house and a pleasant happy human rights day to you and looking forward to studying that human rights card in detail. Thank you for your time, Deliella. Thank you, Chenade. And for all the listeners who might be interested in reading the report card or viewing the launch, it will be last streamed and released on the website today. And I can find it at www.fwa.org. Thank you, Deliella. We'll see you again. Have a good day. Bye.