Enhancing Parliaments’ Role in Defending and Promoting Human Rights in Southern Africa

Parliaments play a central role in the promotion and protection of human rights. They are responsible for, inter alia, ratification of human rights treaties and adoption of enabling legislation at national level, ensuring that sufficient funds are provided for human rights implementation and overseeing governments’ activities in the field. Parliaments also have significant potential to support the international human rights system and improve the implementation of internationally recognised standards at the domestic level.

The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) is an important actor in promoting the principles of human rights in the work of parliaments in the region. Among many of its activities, the institution has recently developed the Guidelines for Parliaments in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the SADC region, validated and approved in February 2023, paving the way for their subsequent dissemination and domestication.