The theme of this year's Human Rights Month is 'The Year of Charlotte Maxeke: Promoting Human Rights in the Age of COVID-19', marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of liberation struggle heroine and human rights campaigner Charlotte Maxeke.

Human Rights Day commemorates the Sharpeville Massacre which occurred on 21 March 1960, when apartheid security forces cracked down on peaceful marches that opposed pass laws that had been imposed on black South Africans, resulting in 189 men, women and children being gunned down and over 69 being injured.

The Sharpeville Massacre, as the event has become known, signalled the start of armed resistance in South Africa and prompted worldwide condemnation of South Africa's apartheid policies.

The objective of the 2021 Human Rights Month is to contribute to the transformation of the nation’s memorialisation project by recognising women who contributed significantly to the nation’s liberation struggle and bring to the fore the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment and how these have further disadvantaged the poor in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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