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South Africa marks 21 March as Human Rights Day, in commemoration of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, in which a reported 69 unarmed people were killed by the apartheid police and scores injured while protesting apartheid pass laws. While this day highlights our pledge to the Bill of Rights, as enshrined in our Constitution, it is also a stark reminder that human rights infringements and violations remain an everyday reality in the country. The quest for  liberation and social justice – in the face of persisting inequalities, indignities and restrictions – continues! Poverty, social disparity, corruption, high unemployment, violence, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, xenophobia and environmental degradation are some of the factors that impede the realisation of human rights in South Africa.

Concurrently, UNESCO marks 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – yet another denotation of the violence of racism that many individuals and communities in South Africa suffer, significantly compromising their access to, and enjoyment of human rights. Here, we would do well to remember that despite its universal intention, the notion of human rights stays entangled with hierarchies of being – along racialised, as well as gendered, economised, sexualised, nationalised and other social distinctions –  that separate some humans from others, that privilege some and subordinate others. Every day in South African society, we bear witness to the experiences and struggles of marginalised groups for whom recognition as human beings with rights, freedoms, dignity and value seems largely unattainable. Most immediately, this is exemplified by the health-inequality feedback loop that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus, highlighting such concerns as unequal access to water and health care services, and the concomitant impact on the most vulnerable members of our society.

Human rights and their violations are thus of central importance to psychology – to state the obvious. Psychologists have a societal responsibility that urges the transcending of conventional disciplinary positionalities, boundaries and norms, where our science, practice, teaching, policy and activism are explicitly in service of all of humanity, and where our focus on human rights is not delimited to select peoples and contexts through the problematic logics of inclusion and exclusion.

PsySSA invites you to broaden the horizons of your engagements and actions as we reflect on the significance of Human Rights Day, also remembered as Sharpeville Day by many.