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AARGH! So South Africa has voted - alongside those bastions of human rights, China and Russia - against a United Nations resolution on the “promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet”.
The resolution was aimed at protecting human rights online such as freedom of expression and privacy – as well as the release of people imprisoned for what they termed ‘legitimate’ online freedom of expression.
Why would South Africa side with Russia and China on this?
Just days later, Zimbabwe’s ruling party (described by a Movement for Democratic Change spokesperson as "tired, expired and clueless politicians") mooted the idea of closing down social media, in a bid to fend off a mass stayaway. The idea spread like wildfire via social media, as Evan Mawarire’s video went viral.
That’s the power of social media, and politicians don’t like it.
But really, they should just lump it – given that this nation was birthed on a wave of faith that at last the Freedom Charter would be honoured (“The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship and to educate their children”), a faith which was honoured a couple of years later in the Constitution (“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes: freedom of the press and other media; freedom to receive or impart information or ideas; freedom of artistic creativity; and academic freedom and freedom of scientific research”).
Those are freedoms on which prosperous nations are founded; freedoms which I think people in business should fight for. (Would you like your use of social media to advertise, create brand awareness and get messages across to be shut down, for example?)
Dubious trck record on human rights
South Africa does have a track record of not coming down on the side of human rights at the UN: in March last year, for example, South Africa joined China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in abstaining from a vote on four UN resolutions which created the mandate of a “Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy and established a forum on human rights, democracy and the rule of law”.
Our country also abstained on UN issues relating to human rights violations in Iran and North Korea – good grief, why?
In November last year, South Africa once again sided with champions of human rights China, Russia, North Korea and Sudan in voting against a resolution aimed at “Protecting human rights defenders addressing economic, social and cultural rights” (ESC rights).
The South African who served for six years as UN high commissioner on human rights, Navi Pillay, said before the vote: “As a South African, I have seen and experienced first-hand the role of ESC rights defenders in combating poverty and injustice and in promoting universal human rights for all, even the most powerless and disadvantaged. I have seen how the work of those who defend ESC rights benefits entire communities; just as attacks against those who defend ESC rights harm entire communities.”
South Africa has a long track record of voting to block condemnation of human rights violations in countries like Zimbabwe. In fact, in 2007, UN Watch’s study, Dawn of A New Era?, “measured all 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council based on 20 key votes. South Africa’s score lies at the bottom with a grade of minus 16, tied with countries like Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia”.
And now, South Africa has abstained on a key vote to appoint an independent watchdog on sexual orientation. It passed anyway, but no single African country voted for it. I don’t understand the thing about gays, I really don’t. You may not like or approve of what they do in their own beds, but why commit human rights violations against them?
I find drunks pretty offensive and far more dangerous than your average gay, but I’d never beat a drunk up. And consider this: throughout the world, wherever you go, about 5% to 8% of people are gay, and they have no choice in the matter. That means between five and eight of every hundred people in your workplace; or five to eight of every hundred kids at your child’s school. Real people, with real feelings and lives beyond their sexual orientation. Think about it.
How do issues around sexual orientation matter to business people? Well, a lot, actually. South Africa is once again bidding to host the Gay Games in Cape Town, 2022. The next Games, in Paris in 2018, are expected to draw about 15 000 contestants (that's bigger than the Olympics), and the last Games, in Cleveland, Ohio in 2014, brought in some $70m to the local economy.
Yup. Think about the jobs created. Think about the profits made. Think about the knock-on effects for the rest of us – the visitors who extend their trip to see the Kruger, the demands for supplies across the country, the goodwill that could turn into a decades-long boost for tourism… Now do you want to be seen as a gay-unfriendly society? Nope. Thought not.
And that, dear readers, is why we should all speak out about our country’s tendency to side with the Saudi Arabias and Russias of this world.
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter.
