During apartheid, Coloured, Black, Indian, and Chinese citizens had restricted movement and were required by law to carry registration documents in the form of a domestic pass or ‘dompas.’ This document ‘allowed’ Black people to enter and remain in areas not designated to them, and they were required to carry the document at all times. In apartheid South Africa, Black citizens who failed to produce the dompas were arrested immediately.

The exclusivity of the apartheid laws, which benefited the white minority, stood in stark contrast to the harsh reality faced by the country’s indigenous black citizens every day.

In March of 1960, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway group from the African National Congress (ANC) led by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, launched a campaign protesting the dompas laws. With the women remaining at home, the men left their dwellings without their dompasses and walked directly to police stations.

The strategy was one of civil disobedience, aiming for mass arrests that would overwhelm police stations in the then Transvaal (now Gauteng), where the protests began. In Sharpeville, protests turned violent quickly when police struggled to contain and control the crowds flooding the police stations. According to apartheid officials, 69 people were killed and more than 200 people were left injured. However, recent revisions suggest that the number of deaths was closer to 91.

In Langa, more than 6000 people joined the anti-pass laws campaign and marched to police stations in Philippi and Langa without their dompas documents. When news of the killings in Sharpeville reached the protesters, they gathered in response. As the police attempted to disperse the crowd, they were met with stone-throwing protestors, resulting in two deaths and many injured.

The days that followed saw a new vigour in protest actions across the country. Robert Sobukwe and Philip Kgosana, founding members and leaders of the PAC, were arrested. Sobukwe was arrested in 1960, followed by Philip Kgosana on 30 March after being duped by the government that they will hear him out on the demands for the abolishment of the pass laws.

Funerals in Langa took place on 28 March and was attended by more than 50 000 people with the ANC’s President-General, Albert Luthuli declaring it a day of mourning. Further protest actions took on the form of ‘stay-aways,’ which resulted in knocks to the labour-driven apartheid economy.

Apartheid was characterised by systemic, institutionalised violence and human rights abuses and is recognised as a crime against humanity.

In our constitutional democracy today, we sometimes forget that under apartheid, we lived under legislated political oppression. We routinely suffered beatings and endured police and the army presence in the townships. Many were abducted —often without anyone knowing they were missing. The system was an affront to human dignity, enforcing racial segregation and entrenched discrimination based on appearance. The system was built on violence and torture, with sexual torture, rape and many other indignities inflicted upon us.

Celebrating Human Rights Day today signifies the absence of these violations. It means that we can expect to be treated with respect in our person, culture, and beliefs, and that our dignity will be preserved. Experiencing safety, respect, and freedom should always be our fundamental right. Human Rights Day is more than just another public holiday; it is a reminder of our past so that we never repeat it. 

By Anthea Flink

While glacier loss is often framed as an environmental issue, it is deeply intertwined with human rights. At IJR, we believe addressing glacier melt goes beyond environmental conservation; it is about safeguarding the rights of those who have been historically marginalised and continue to face the harshest consequences of climate change.

The year 2025 is a significant milestone for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) as we celebrate 25 years of advancing human rights across the African continent. While we take pride in this accomplishment, we remain deeply committed to addressing the pressing challenges facing our planet.

As glaciers are melting at a rapid rate, the United Nations General Assembly has named 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, spotlighting the widespread effects glacier melt has on water security, ecosystems, and vulnerable communities around the world (Blondel, 2025). Why do we care about this at IJR?

While it might be seen as isolated issues, climate change is fundamentally a human rights issue, as its effects are felt the most by marginalised communities, whose basic rights are already insufficiently protected (Aliozi, 2021:3). Climate change has dire effects on these communities’ basic rights to health, food, safety, and a sustainable future. Therefore, addressing these injustices requires a climate justice approach, recognising that the impacts of climate change are not felt equally across communities around the world.

According to Aliozi (2021:3-4), climate justice is a lens to view climate change as not solely an environmental issue, but also an ethical, social, and political issue. At its core, climate justice can be seen as a pre-condition to protect human rights, especially of the most vulnerable communities. This perspective becomes even more significant when you consider the fact that these communities have already endured historical injustices at the hands of colonialism and slavery, with the nations responsible for those violations, contributing the most to the current environmental crisis.

The communities that have endured the persistent effects of colonisation and slavery, have found themselves unable to combat the extensive impact of climate change. As mentioned by Bordner, Harnett & Waters (2023), the limited ability of marginalised communities to adapt to climate change, as well as their heightened vulnerability, are not inherent traits. Rather, these challenges are the result of colonisation, the loss of land, and the exploitation of resources by the very nations that are primarily responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

As global warming continues to have irreversible effects worldwide, climate change has become synonymous with climate emergency because if it is not mitigated, it has the potential to become the end of human rights. In this regard, human rights law is applicable to climate justice as the human-inflicted impacts of climate change in turn cause human rights violations (Aliozi, 2021: 4-6).

In this context, the glaciers’ melting is not simply an environmental issue, it is a social justice issue. Across the world, numerous countries depend of glacier-fed rivers for clean drinking water, agricultural practices, and even as a source of energy. These countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In South America, it is estimated that over 90 million people rely on glacier-fed water for daily survival (Gajbhiye, 2025). As the glaciers’ melt at an alarming rate, these vital resources are increasingly depleting.

The consequences of glacier melt are intensified in the Global South, as water scarcity, food insecurity, and displacement are exacerbated by additional climate-related challenges, including extreme weather risks and natural disasters, as well as limited access to infrastructure and resources (Dyson, 2025). While glaciers may appear to be a distant concern for Africa, they form a crucial part of our continent, with Mount Kilimanjaro, the Rwenzori Mountains, and Mount Kenya, symbolising Africa’s natural heritage.

As outlined by the International Water Management Institute (2025), these glaciers are at risk of disappearing, similarly to the ones in the Bale and Arsi Mountains in Ethiopia that lost their ice cover after the last cold period. Scientists have discovered that the continent’s glaciers have lost over 90% of their area since the late 19th century. The drastic retreat of glaciers will not only impact tourism in the region, but also Africa’s biodiversity and natural resources, in turn, affecting infrastructure and settlements, and the livelihood, health, and security of Africans.

Although Africa’s glaciers are small in comparison to glaciers found in other parts of the world, they still have a vital role in the continent’s ecosystems and water systems, contributing to river flow in dry seasons, and supporting agricultural practices and livelihoods in the areas. The Rwenzori Mountains mentioned above, for example, feed into river systems that provide water to communities in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Mount Kenya helps sustains ecosystems and agriculture in the surrounding region (International Water Management Institute. 2025).

Glacier loss, coupled with extreme weather events, had led to the loss of infrastructures and settlements, as communities are forced to leave their homes in search of alternative water supplies. Moreover, as glaciers continue to melt, sea levels continue to rise, exposing communities along Africa’s coastlines to the risk of flooding. In 2020, it is estimated that flooding in the Kasese district of Uganda affected roughly 173 000 people, destroying 25 000 homes. The cause of these floods has been linked to glacial melt in the Rwenzori Mountains (Watsisi, 2025).

As illustrated above, glacier melt not only threatens ecosystems, but highlights Africa’s vulnerabilities to the challenges caused by climate change. As a result, mitigating the issues caused by glacier loss should not only be seen as pertaining to environmental conservation, but rather, also concerning the promotion on equal access to basic resources and safeguarding the rights of those most negatively impacted by climate change.

At the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, our work within climate justice recognises the crucial intersection between climate change and socio-economic issues. As vulnerable communities are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the effects of climate change and environmental degradation, they are continuing to battle the existing injustices and inequalities brought about by slavery, colonialism, war, and apartheid.

In the year 2025, let us reaffirm our dedication to promoting human rights, justice, and reconciliation, as we continue to engage in discussions about climate justice and work tirelessly towards addressing climate-related challenges.