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Cultural Protections – 2001

On September 5, 2001, the government finally tabled the long-awaited draft legislation to establish the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities. The formation of the commission would promote respect for and protect the rights of “cultural, religious and linguistic communities.”¹

The national assembly approved the bill in March 2002. On July 22, 2004, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission) was officially launched in South Africa—the last of the “State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy” to be set up under Chapter 9 of the 1996 Constitution.²Sean Morrow, “A South African Commission’s Mandate To Protect Cultural Rights,” Human Rights Dialogue: “Cultural Rights” (April 22, 2005), accessed July 13, 2010, http://www.cceia.org/resources/publications/dialogue/2_12/online_exclusi…

1. “South Africa: ‘Long-awaited’ bill tabled to promote interests of minority groups,” BBC Monitoring Africa, September 5, 2001.