Madam Chair, modesty makes it impossible for me to comment. Thank you. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON, (Mr M B Skosana): Madam Chairperson and hon members, firstly, let me thank the hon Chief Whip of the Majority Party for the motion he moved this afternoon regarding Sharpeville. I also thank the Leader of the Opposition for referring to Sharpeville. I am saying this because I am a survivor of the Sharpeville Massacre.
In the ANC's document on the transformation of the judicial system and the assessment of the role of the judiciary in the developmental South African state, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Jeff Radebe, reminds South Africans very often that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and sets out to establish a nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous society, founded on human rights. I think this is at the core: a state and society founded on human rights.
We also think it is important that any assessment of the impact of the transformation of a society founded on the culture of human rights is predicated on the basic texts of international law on human rights. It means that national and regional parliaments, including the Pan-African Parliament, should mount ongoing periodic educational programmes to enlighten their members and citizens on the origin and socioeconomic implications of human rights and the need to integrate human rights in the system of governance and daily life. These educational programmes should pay attention to the relevant, proper and simple analysis of a collection of major international texts relating to human rights. These, and I will count them, are the texts that should form the basis of the education of our people.
Firstly, the Universal Protection of Human Rights are texts prepared within the United Nations and include conventions on the economic, social and cultural rights and the convention on political and civil rights. Secondly, the Regional Protection of Human Rights are texts prepared within the Council of Europe and they include treaties, conventions, charters and additional protocols to the conventions. Thirdly, texts prepared within the Organization of American States include conventions, declarations and additional protocols. Fourthly, there are texts prepared within the Organisation of African Unity, including the African Charter on Human and People's Rights of 1981. Lastly, there are texts from the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, including extracts from the Helsinki Accords, or the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the concluding documents of the Vienna Meeting of 1989, the document of the Copenhagen Meeting on the Conference on the Human Dimension of 1990 and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe.
We believe it is only when the culture of human rights is interwoven with all levels of our lives that a society and state founded on human rights will be realised. [Applause.]