June
13
South Africa: Amnesty International Report, 2009
Human Rights Amnesty International South Africa Trackbacks (0)The rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants were violated on a large scale. Inadequate training of police and health care providers undermined efforts to address persistently high rates of violence against women. Barriers to non-discriminatory access to health services continued to affect the majority of people living with HIV for most of the year. Torture and other ill-treatment by police, prison warders and private security guards continued to be reported and sometimes led to the deaths of detainees.
In an increasingly volatile political environment, the
judiciary, and human rights bodies and defenders came under attack from
national political figures. These tensions were also evident in the
political responses to local campaigns to address deepening poverty and
inequality, the shortage of adequate housing, threatened large-scale
evictions arising from mining or development schemes, and the crisis
over land claims.