Investigating crimes against humanity is a notoriously complex, slow and expensive business.
Zimbabwe meets both these criteria. Basic human rights have been something of a luxury there in recent years, and particularly in 2007 – the year in which the crimes against humanity that SAPS must now investigate were allegedly committed.
Human rights
Politics and Society Campaigners clash on female genital mutilation
Can you still have orgasms if your clitoris has been cut off? Certainly, say European researchers at the World Congress for Sexual Health, after studying African women who’ve been ‘circumcised’ or experienced genital mutilation
Politics and Society Gambia passes bill imposing life sentences for some gay acts
Gambia has passed a bill that allows some homosexual acts to be punished with life imprisonment, potentially worsening the climate for sexual minorities in a country led by one of Africa’s most vocal anti-gay leaders
Politics and Society Somalia criticised for media arrests
The Somali government has been lambasted for its arrests and torture of journalists employed by independent media group Shabelle Media Network
Politics and Society Tanzanian police find bags of human body parts
Tanzanian police apprehended eight people in connection with 85 refuse bags stuffed with human body parts – including limbs, fingers and skulls – found dumped in a landfill
Politics and Society Sodomy by any other name still smells of sex
There is no public objection to heterosexual intimacy where the female is penetrated in the anus by the male, but moral outrage ensues when sodomy involves two men. And exactly how robust are the religious arguments against sodomy and homosexuality?
Politics and Society Zimbabwe editor arrested
The editor of a Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper was arrested in a police raid on Thursday evening, with police saying it was for “publications that he did”, Zimbabwe’s The Herald reported
Politics and Society Silencing of Nigerian media condemned
Rights groups and journalists have expressed concern that media freedom in Nigeria has fallen worryingly below international standards after nationwide seizures of newspapers and restrictions on live political programming were enforced by the government, Independent Online reported
Politics and Society No learning from Sharpeville massacre
In his Human Rights Day speech, President Zuma claimed “We now live in a thriving democracy with equal citizenship for all and a respect for human rights and dignity.” Tell that to the families of those killed by police in the last few years alone.