Business Must Respect the Rule of Human Rights Law

It is appropriate that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final report is delivered to the President of South Africa on Human Rights Day because we must reverse the erosion of the human rights discourse in addressing social and economic injustices, Jubilee South Africa said today in a statement welcoming the report.

The unresolved TRC issue is accountability for reparations for apartheid human rights violations.

For more than four years, Jubilee South Africa's Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign has been calling on the multinational banks and businesses that aided and abetted the apartheid state in its criminal activities to acknowledge their role in apartheid and to repair the damage that their profiteering made possible. However, the corporations have refused to take the call seriously. The victims of human rights abuses under apartheid therefore filed legal complaints against those corporations for apartheid reparations.

Today, we call on the corporations to respect the rule of international human rights law by making a commitment to reparations for the victims of apartheid.

Reparations must include individual compensation for the victims of severe human rights violations and social programmes for the reconstruction and development of communities left impoverished by apartheid. In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, we reaffirm our commitment to the future of the victims of apartheid and demand transparency and accountability from private corporations that were complicit in apartheid.

For more information and comment please contact Jubilee South Africa
spokesperson Neville Gabriel at cell. +27 83 449 3934 or Jubilee South
Africa chairperson MP Giyose at cell. +27 82 350 0361.
Email: ljohnson@sacbc.org.za

Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign: Jubilee South Africa

Media Statement