Various Paradoxes in South Africa Referred to by Mary Robinson Assignment What are the various paradoxes in south Africa referred to by Mary Robinson and w

Various Paradoxes in South Africa Referred to by Mary Robinson Assignment What are the various paradoxes in south Africa referred to by Mary Robinson and why are they significant ?In what ways does the author link justice, civic engagement and citizenship, how is each term being used or defined in relation to the others ? What new tools of civic engagement does the author includes in her comments and how might their use transform the pursuit of justice ? 1:34
Image 9.1 Mary Robinson
SECTION 2
– Mary Robinson –
Freedom, Truth, Democracy:
Citizenship & Common Purpose
Paradoxes + Conundrums + Civic Engagement = Justice?
Weaving- an old and honored craft whose power of analogy never
wanes. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland (1990-1997) and UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002) weaves together the
experiences of the Irish and South African, women and men, children
and adults with critical, seemingly overwhelming, paradoxes and conun-
drums of (in)justice and civic engagement. In her speech she recalls
events and conditions of South Africa and Ireland – past and present –
that detail the various faces and patterns of (in)justice: political, social,
economic, etc. Those comparisons and contrasts underscore the wide-
spread nature of the need for civic engagement at all levels – local, na-
tional, regional and global – to redress the deficiencies that cause and
perpetuate injustice.
“Freedom, Truth, Democracy: Citizenship and Common Purpose”
is the title, and accurately captures the essential concerns, of Mary Rob-
inson’s speech delivered at the 10th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture. The
‘Dialogue of Justice’ program, for which the speech was written, is one
of the efforts supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. In her ad-
dress, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights integrates
‘local references – her family ties with South Africa – and very global
questions about sustainability, violent conflict and quality of life dispari-
ties. It is this last, poverty in all its forms, that shapes significant lines of
argument throughout her speech.
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that they don’t get caught in the cross fire, local community
members resorting to vigilante justice, the dreaded necklace
– situations that need to be addressed before those people
can feel free and participate as active citizens in South Af-
rica’s democracy. (Robinson, para 23)
Where you witness extremes of wealth side by side with dire
poverty within the same country, it is more divisive than an
overall condition of poverty. Last year I came here to South
Africa to attend my beloved niece’s wedding. Before joining
the party I was invited by Mamphela Ramphele to visit part of
Eastern Cape, where I sat with her listening in on the Let-
sema Circle Pathfinder initiative. I was taken aback by the
poverty of the surroundings and deeply impressed with this
initiative. From there I travelled to the town of Paarl for the
family wedding, and was even more taken aback by the
shocking disparity I witnessed: from abject poverty to luxuri-
ous, gated wealth. (Robinson, para 22)
And therein lies what is perhaps the most significant paradox of this dis-
cussion.
If civic engagement is the very mechanism for addressing such ad-
verse, violent conditions in society, but those conditions inhibit civic en-
gagement, what, then, becomes the motivation and means for civic en-
gagement? Is it the lofty goal of the desirability of justice writ large or the
more humble perceived need for the day-to-day security of knowing that
you, your family and community are free from want and have a reason-
able quality of life? Mary Robinson’s analysis of this paradox stems from
her quoting the eloquent words of former US First Lady Eleanor Roose-
velt (spoken in 1958 at the UN to honor the 10 Anniversary of the Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights):
mo
In the tradition of all weavers, Mary Robinson deftly plaits together myr-
iad manifestations of this all-too-prevalent human condition with calls for
action on the part of the ordinary person and global leader alike.
Practicing what she ‘preaches’ this world leader continues to pur-
sue civic engagement in local, national, regional and global contexts – or,
accurately, at their nexus. Mary Robinson’s life experiences include
arguing cases before Irish courts as well as the European Court of Hu-
man Rights. Her “firsts” encompass being the first woman president of
her country and first Irish head of state to visit the United Kingdom; she
also was the first head of state to travel to Somalia after the 1992 crisis
and Rwanda after the 1994 genocide (The Elders). Among the critical jus-
tice issues that Mary Robinson interlaces with her civic engagement are
child marriage, peaceful conflict resolution, women’s equality and em-
powerment, and climate justice. The ‘loom,’ if you will, is the law. A dedi-
cated barrister and legislator, her legal training at Trinity College in Dublin
remains the framework for addressing such conundrums.
Civic engagement, then, requires making the choice to be an active
member of one’s community. It also, according to Mary Robinson, re-
quires freedom from fear of reprisal. In describing current conditions in
South Africa, she relates that,
‘Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places,
close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be
seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the
individual person’ Now it’s here in the quote where I have to
stop and say it’s not gender-sensitive, but it was in 1958 …
‘the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he at-
tends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are
the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal
justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimina-
tion. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little
meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to up-
hold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in
the larger world.’ (Robinson, para 29)
The former UN High Commissioner continues by noting that the
My friends tell me that the levels of crime and violence in
some areas … mean that people are living in unmanageably
traumatic situations – school learners sitting on the floor so
concerted citizen action’ called for requires engagement by the
people with the process of government in all its forms, starting with
the very local. But with such contrasts of extremes as I alluded to
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earlier, it is not difficult to understand the disengagement and apa-
thy of many citizens living in those unmanageably traumatic situa-
tions. (Robinson, para 29)
The paradox of the injustice – civic engagement relationship, then, as
illustrated by Mary Robinson, resonates with the actions of Mohatma
Gandhi as well as Che Guevara, with the thoughts of Marx and Engels as
well as Lao Tze, Kong Fu zi and Plato.
As a former President of Ireland, however, she does not only call
upon the citizenry to “do its part.” She laments what she perceives as
the growing corruption in the South African government and calls upon
political and economic leaders to engage in more just behavior as well.
So, it is the responsibility of governmental leaders to establish and nur-
ture open forms of decision-making as much as it is the responsibility of
individuals to participate in the day-to-day activities of the community.
The crucial dynamic for justice to be obtained, based on Mary Robin-
son’s life-long experience and observations, remains the symbiotic rela-
tionship between civic engagement by political leaders and civic engage-
ment by the members of that society. In short,
Meitheal and Ubuntu are deep-rooted, traditional ap-
proaches that can be harnessed towards a vision of citizen-
ship that involves active participation in a society in which citi-
zens enjoy personal rights and freedoms, and they discharge
the correlating duties and responsibilities towards a common
purpose of a sustainable future. (Robinson, para 35)
What the ANC has achieved in those hundred years is re-
markable: from the defiance campaign, the resistance move-
ment, armed struggle, banishment, to becoming the govern-
ing political party since 1994, leading the way in transforming
the country according to that vision. Sadly, though, in recent
years my South African friends tell me the ANC’s moral
authority has been eroded, tainted by allegations of corrup-
tion; a temporary betrayal of its history. (Robinson, para 20)
Image 9.2 Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt holding a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
J. Human Rights
INIVERSAL DECLARATION
Does this passage reflect the saying that “power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely” or is it a commentary on the entrenched na-
ture of injustice and inequality and the resultant need for constant, vigi-
lant civic engagement on the part of those in power to remain truthful?
In Mary Robinson’s words,
[i]n the context of ideas of freedom and democracy, of citizen-
ship and common purpose, … is the need for transparency
and accountability in government action. In order for citizens
to remain the stewards of democracy, issues of accountabil-
ity and transparency in governance are key. … I can give you
a certainty: if you enact a law that cloaks the workings of
state actors, that interferes with press freedom to investigate
corruption, that stifles efforts by whistleblowers to expose
corruption, you are sure to increase those levels of corruption
tomorrow. (Robinson, para 14)
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‘The practice of necklacing entails placing a tire around a person’s body
and setting it on fire. In apartheid South Africa individuals were subjected
to this who were perceived to be collaborating with the White Suprema-
cist government. Currently the practice targets immigrants out of fear
and perceptions of being threatened because of high unemployment and
a weakened economy.
2 The African National Congress is one of the primary organizations that
fought against apartheid and, now, the political party of Nelson Mandela
and each president to follow him.
This is perhaps a simple, even obvious truth, but one that is often over-
looked or, worse, actively avoided.
Moving from the abstract to the practical and pragmatic, and back
again, Mary Robinson – a long time champion of women’s rights – turns
to that subject to further illustrate her explanations of justice and civic en-
gagement. She elaborates on the disparities and paradoxes found in
South Africa and by extension, arguably, the world. That country, as a mi-
crocosm of the world, contains both amazing acts of civic engagement
by women as well as gross inequities between the sexes. Robinson
quotes Graça Machel to illustrate the former: “I think that in ten years
time Africa will be a completely different landscape. It’s already happen-
ing with regard to women: skillful and ambitious women will be at the
highest levels of decision-making in politics, business, science and tech-
nology. There’s a new generation of female leaders coming” (Robinson,
para 40). Further, as stipulated in her speech, 41% of the South African
cabinet were women, five of the nine provincial premiers were women
and 42.3% of the seats in the lower house of the South African Parlia-
ment were occupied by women (in 2012). Despite this, HIV has been con-
tracted by twice many women as men and 196 cases of sexual of-
fenses were reported in 2010-2011 with some involving rape of very
young children (Robinson, paras. 41-42). Regarding sex and gender,
then, Mary Robinson implicitly asks us to consider the intersection, the
weaving together, of sex and gender based injustices and various forms
of civic engagement. It is this portion of her speech that evokes the work
of women such as Wangari Maathai and Jody Williams – two of the other
readings in this course.
In closing, a simple statement offered by the former Irish head of
state perhaps holds implications for the justice-civic engagement
nexus: “Every country has the capacity – and sometimes the need to
reinvent itself” (Robinson, para 17). As humanity continues to engage in
injustice, individuals and society as a whole will need to undertake the
reinvention of civic engagement to transform injustice into justice. Achiev-
ing this requires an old and honored craft – weaving.
According to Mary Robinson, Meitheal is “… an Irish word that … ex-
presses the idea of community spirit and self-reliance. … If a farmer was
sick, his field would be done willingly by neighbours. … [
Meitheal [is]
similar to the African ethic of Ubuntu, that idea of human interconnected-
ness and solidarity, described in the phrase which Archbishop Tutu often
uses with us, the phrase “I am because you are” (para 34).
Endnotes
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