Description

In the 1950s, civic society in South Africa became mobilised against racist laws that penetrated nearly every aspect of civic life. The social justice struggle that eventually displaced white minority rule culminated in democratic elections in 1994. Following this historic transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, other issues came to the fore, including how the government was to receive persons claiming refugee status on the basis of persecution and war. Civic actors in South Africa again became mobilised around these ‘new’ human rights and social justice issues. At different moments, civic actors became engaged either in working with government to develop a refugee policy, or in confronting the government to fulfil its national and international obligations towards refugees.
This book discusses the dynamics of civic-state interactions aimed at the state’s obligations to promote, protect and fulfil human rights. Through the lens of refugee rights advocacy in South Africa in the first decade of its post-1994 period of democracy, this book examines and explains the circumstances under which civic-state interactions can lead to structural change, and what these interactions can teach us about the potential of civic society to realise rights in general.