This mission provided technical assistance to the South African's Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
The European Union Framework Contract Beneficiaries 2013 (FWC BENEF 2013) - LOT 7 “Governance and Home Affairs", section “Human rights and Governance” covers the following domains:
- Promotion and protection of human rights,
- Support to democratisation,
- Reinforcement of the rule of law and administration of justice,
- Public administration reform, and civil service reform,
- Decentralisation and local development,
- Enhancement of the role of civil society.
In this context, ECES‘ experts, Manuel Wally and Patricia-Ann Martin-Wiesner, have been selected to implement a mission aimed at providing technical assistance to Government of South Africa, and in particular the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, to meet its reporting obligations under the multilateral and regional treaties, by developing a framework for reporting and follow ups.
The specific objectives of the mission were:
- To design an institutional mechanism, including a reporting framework, for reporting and follow ups on the international and regional Human Rights treaties;
- To build the capacity of the South African Government regarding its reporting obligations .
The mission was structured around four phases :
- The first phase focused on evaluating the current mechanism for reporting used by the South African government;
- The second phase soought to compile all information regarding South Africa reporting obligations;
- The third phase focused on drafting a reporting framework for South Africa to meet its international obligations, based on international best practices, on UNHCHR guidelines;
- The fourth phase targeted building the capacity of the South African government by conducting a programme to reinforce and build skills, expertise and capacity on compliance and reporting.
