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Social justice organisations launch The Right to Read Campaign to address early-grade literacy
30 August 2023, Johannesburg – Today marks the launch of the Right to Read Campaign (R2R) at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg in response to the shocking early-grade literacy rates in South Africa. In May, the results of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) revealed that 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for…
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MEDIA ADVISORY: The Right to Read Campaign is launching to remedy the literacy crisis in schools
24 August 2023, Johannesburg – The Right to Read Campaign, made up of organisations that include the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Equal Education (EE), and SECTION27, invite you to their launch, on Wednesday, 30 August 2023. The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results released in…
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SECTION27 Board appoints Sasha Stevenson as the new Executive Director
21 July 2023, Johannesburg – SECTION27 is delighted to announce the appointment of Ms Sasha Stevenson as the next Executive Director. Sasha joined the organisation in 2012 as an attorney and was later promoted to Head of the Health Rights Programme, a position she held since 2018. Sasha assumed the role of Executive Director on…
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PRESS STATEMENT: Civil society organisations condemn Gauteng health facilities’ defiance of laws and recent court order on free access to health care for pregnant women
4 July 2023 – In April 2023, the Gauteng High Court upheld the right of all pregnant and lactating women, and children under 6, irrespective of nationality and documentation status, to access free health services at all public health establishments, including hospitals. This ruling followed an application brought by SECTION27 alongside women who had been denied access to…
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10 years too late: Blind SA and SECTION27 march to urge the South African government to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty
27 June 2023, Johannesburg – Today, SECTION27, Blind SA and other activists and civil society organisations will march in Pretoria to urge the South African government to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. The Treaty seeks to address the global…
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Blind SA and SECTION27 march to urge the South African government to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty
20 June 2023, Johannesburg – SECTION27 and Blind SA invite the media to a march on 27 June in Pretoria to urge the South African government to ratify the ‘Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled Persons’. The Treaty seeks to address the global…
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SECTION27 goes to the Supreme Court of Appeal calling for SACE’s lenient sanctions on corporal punishment to be reviewed
30 May 2023, Johannesburg – SECTION27 on behalf of the Centre for Child Law (CCL) and two parents are partially appealing a High Court’s judgment in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), following the actions of two violent teachers who meted out corporal punishment against two primary school learners in the classroom. Despite corporal punishment…
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Court orders Gauteng Health to provide pregnancy termination services to a teenager following SECTION27 intervention
28 May 2023, Johannesburg — SECTION27 launched a successful urgent application on behalf of a pregnant minor who was denied access to termination of pregnancy (TOP) services at a primary public healthcare facility in Gauteng. The minor made multiple attempts to access these services, in accordance with her rights under the Choice on Termination of…
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TAC and MSF intervene in a case for a lifesaving cystic fibrosis drug priced at over R5 million
10 May 2023, Johannesburg – In what could be a groundbreaking case for affordable access to medicines in South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa, both represented by SECTION27, have filed papers in the Pretoria High Court to intervene as amici curiae (friends of the court) in a compulsory license application for access to…
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Civil society welcomes DBE initiative towards inclusive educational spaces regardless of gender or sexual orientation
05 May 2023, Johannesburg — SECTION27, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and the Centre for Child Law (CCL) made a submission to the Department of Basic Education’s (“DBE”) Draft Guidelines for the Socio-Educational Inclusion of Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in schools. We welcome the DBE’s Draft Guidelines, which…
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MEDIA STATEMENT: SECTION27 and Blind SA launch a children’s storybook, ‘Crossing the Road’
19 April 2023, Johannesburg – Today, SECTION27 and Blind SA, in partnership with Nal’ iBali, launch a storybook, Crossing the Road, to highlight how barriers to accessible reading formats violate the rights of blind and visually impaired persons. Launched ahead of World Book and Copyright Day, which takes place on Sunday, 23 April 2023, the…
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SECTION27 welcomes Court order confirming that all pregnant and lactating women and children under 6 must be provided with free health services at public hospitals
17 April 2023, Johannesburg – The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg on Friday upheld the right of all pregnant and lactating women, and children under 6, irrespective of nationality and documentation status, to access free health services at all public health establishments, including hospitals. The Court ordered that Gauteng regulations and a policy, introduced by the Gauteng…
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MEDIA ADVISORY: SECTION27 and Blind SA to launch storybook, ‘Crossing the Road’ ahead of World Book and Copyright Day
SECTION27 and Blind SA, in partnership with Nal’ iBali, invite you to the launch of a storybook, ‘Crossing the Road’, on 19 April 2023 ahead of the World Book and Copyright Day which takes place on 23 April 2023. The storybook, which is designed for primary school learners, is based on the incredible true story…
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SECTION27 welcomes the Department’s decision to place school caretaker on the Child Protection Register
29 March 2023, Johannesburg — SECTION27 welcomes the decision of the Department of Social Development (DoSD) to place a school caretaker, guilty of sexual assault on the Child Protection Register in terms of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. Following the findings of a disciplinary inquiry held by the North West Provincial Department of Education,…
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The CJC stands in solidarity with the victims of #CycloneFreddy, calls for urgent climate action
29 March 2023, Johannesburg – The Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) stands in solidarity with our neighbours in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar who have been devastated by Cyclone Freddy. It is deeply unjust that those who have contributed the least to the climate crisis are bearing the brunt of it. Cyclone Freddy has surged through southern…
