fbpx

Activity 1 

Study on South Africa’s compliance with the Guidelines on access to Information and Elections in Africa.

Outcome
To assess electoral transparency 

Output
The report titled ‘Proactive Disclosure of Information and Elections in South Africa’ is the output of a collaborative research project led by the Centre for Human Rights and its partners in South Africa, including: the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the Democracy, Governance & Service Delivery research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI). The report evaluates how key stakeholders in the electoral process in South Africa fared in terms of proactive disclosure of information before, during and after the national and provincial elections held on 8 May 2019. It is a ground-breaking study being the first of its kind to assess a state party’s compliance with the Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa that were adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in November 2017, during its 61st Ordinary Session.

Summary
The report is being compiled by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria in collaboration with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI).

Objective
To assess the compliance of stakeholders involved in elections with the Guidelines on access to Information and Elections in Africa and provide recommendations that will contribute to electrical transparency in South Africa. The other objective is to conduct similar studies across the continent.

access to info botswana 00

Activity 2

Advocacy and Capacity Building in Botswana 

Outcome
To promote electoral transparency in Africa 

Output:
Stakeholders trained on access to information in the context of elections

Summary

On the 2nd – 3rd  September 2019, the Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit held a workshop
on access to information and election preparedness in Botswana. The workshop was held ahead of the Botswana general elections scheduled. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Electoral Commissions Forum of Southern African Development Community (ECF-SADC) and the Law Department of the University of Botswana. In attendance were a diverse group of stakeholders including representatives from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Attorney General Chambers, the Botswana Communications Authority (BOCRA), members of the media, representatives of political parties and civil society organisations (CSOs).

Rationale
The central objective of the workshop was to raise awareness on access to information in Botswana using the article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), the  Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa (the Guidelines) and the African Union’s Model Law on Access to Information for Africa (Model Law) as the guiding normative framework. It was envisaged that this would promote access to information as encapsulated in the Guidelines ahead of the 2019 general elections, and throughout the electoral cycle. The Guidelines were developed under the auspices of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights with the support of the Centre and other stakeholders.

News story published after the workshop: