UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report Annex:
ICESCR ratified in 2015 and came into force on 12 April 2015.
Optional Protocols have not been ratified.

UN Compilation:
Para 2) The United Nations country team noted the ratification by South Africa of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2015...

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 2) The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) indicated that the Government had ratified ICESCR in 2015...

National Report Annex:
FULL IMPLEMENTATION

A National Task Team (“NTT”) was established by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) to counter the continued discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity against members of the LGBTI community. The DoJ&CD launched the National LGBTI Programme and issued terms of reference for a National Intervention Strategy to address violence based on gender and sexual orientation. The DoJ&CD also issued terms of reference for the rapid response team to fast track cases in the criminal justice system in a bid to endorse the government’s commitment to combat discrimination against LGBTI persons.
When the NTT was re-established in May 2013, the DoJ&CD together with representatives from National Human Rights Institutions and civil society organisations set out to achieve a number of tasks. These included, amongst others, to develop a National Intervention Strategy to respond to, and prevent, gender and sexual orientation-based violent crimes perpetrated against LGBTI persons and to develop an Inter-sectoral Implementation Plan. The NTT undertook to strengthen government’s ability to respond to LGBTI needs and to strengthen the capacity of CSOs to deliver related services.

National Report Annex 1:
The fourth Administration of the democratic South Africa established in 2009, a fully fledged Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD). Through this decision the work of individual Offices on these thematic issues, which were previously located in the Presidency, has been integrated in a single Department. The decision by the government to establish the DWCPD underscores government's commitment to ensure that the voice of vulnerable groups remains a priority issue for which maximum protection should be ensured. Its vision aims to work towards "A fully inclusive society free from unfair discrimination, inequality, abuse and exploitation."

The primary responsibility of the DWCPD is to focus on the advocacy for the mainstreaming of gender, protection of children and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities throughout all the programmes of government for the empowerment of these vulnerable segments of society as well as for the attainment social transformation. The DWCPD also constantly identify the protection gaps and critical areas requiring strengthening through the adoption further legislative, administrative and judicial measures in order to ensure maximum protection, adequate remedies and the combating of impunity for all forms of violence against women, children and persons with disability. The following administrative measures are in place and a proposed Bill on the Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality is undergoing national consultative processes:

- The National Policy for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality provides the guiding principles for mainstreaming the gender perspective across the day to day work of government departments in all three spheres.
- Development of a National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and a Gender Responsive Budgeting Strategy, as well as spearheading the development of the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill, which will enforce implementation of mainstreaming and provide for sanctions for non-compliance.
- The White Paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy, released in 1997, is regarded as best practice internationally, and is currently under review to incorporate commitments contained in the CRPD and sectoral policies and programmes adopted since the White Paper was released.
- The DWCPD is furthermore in the final stages of releasing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework that sets out the institutional mechanisms and disaggregated development indicators for the three sectors.

While all Departments have obligations to mainstream gender issues and to promote social development (advancement of the rights of children, persons with disabilities, empowerment of the youth and the elderly), the South African Department of Social Development has specific and special obligations in this regard which, among others include: the establishment of a Gender Unit, convening of Gender and Masculinity Workshops, Gender Dialogues, the empowerment of Gender Mainstreaming for Community Development Practitioners, a comprehensive approach to poverty eradication which includes the right of access to social security for all vulnerable groups, access to basic services and the provision of pensions.

A Parliamentary Portfolio Committee as a legislative monitoring framework on the promotion and protection on the rights of women and the attainment of gender equality also oversees the rights of children and persons with disabilities. The Commission on Gender Equality was established in 1996 through a Constitutional provision, enacted through the Commission on Gender Equality Act (Act 39 of 1996). It is an autonomous body to promote and protect the achievement of gender equality and reports directly to Parliament.