Safe Spaces Human Rights Education in Diverse Contexts

CORNELIA ROUX
The aim of this chapter is to argue, from a theoretical point, the importance of
caring and safe spaces in projects on social justice issues and human rights
education. In order to do so the commencement of the international funded project
will be described to illustrate the complexities and intricacies that occurs when a
research project on human rights, social justice and gender is conceptualized and
executed. The care taken, the propensity to create safe spaces, the challenges
overcome and the discretionary actions, when exploring all aspects of religious and
cultural practices, will also be discussed.
As indicated above, human rights and education are priorities for the South
African political and educational systems. In our diverse society it is well known that
social justice and gender equity are priorities and imbedded in our constitution. It is
well known that the main aim, after the democratic elections (1994), was to establish
a political and judicially just society with responsibility and respect for the human
rights of all citizens, including language, cultural, religious, ethnic and traditional
rights. The societal balance between the diverse cultures, the many religious and
ethnic groups, should actually be a core pillar of the South African landscape. One of
the main issues in the South African education system is therefore how to generate,
through responsible curricula and professional pedagogy, a just society, underpinned
by the Manifesto of Values, Education and Democracy (Department of Education,
2000), policy documents on Religion in Education (Department of Education, 2003),
Human Rights Education (Department of Education, 2003) and other curriculum
initiatives. Research projects and many political, social and educational initiatives
have tried to establish a core knowledge base at all levels of education in order to
guide the next generation socially into becoming a just society which will be able to
act responsibly. However, the question to be asked is: Why is South African society,
nearly two decades into a new political democratic dispensation, with a wellestablished
constitution and legal system, still failing those vulnerable sectors of
society, such as women and girls from all different walks of life?
The continuous discrimination against girls and young women in the name of
religious and cultural practices seems to be on the increase. These discriminations
are being reflected in reports of Human Rights Watch, the printed and electronic
media, investigative journalism, documentaries and research reports. Much
discrimination and many practices have become opaque, concealed under the guise
of tradition, especially cultural practices in developing worlds, and presented and
motivated in such a manner that they are not censured by society in many cases.
Sporadic media reports and outcries of women’s associations bring the atrocities to
the forefront, but many political, religious and cultural leaders are defending the
origin of specific rituals and practices. There seems to be a dichotomy between
what actually happens, culturally and religiously, and what ought to be in South
Africa’s developing democracy and within the frame of the Constitution and Bill of
Rights (South African Government, 1996). Taking the cultural and religious
backgrounds, its grand narratives as well as its practices into consideration, the
complexity and interpretations becomes a minefield for researchers doing research
in social justice. Christie argues (2010:3) that while “elegant in abstract, rights is
often less clear in the complex conditions of the material life.” Therefore the
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