Governance reform

We use the law as an instrument to realise human rights

Streamlining our governance structure
By Thandi Orleyn, LRC Chairman

In 2022 the LRC embarked on a governance reform process to ensure that we continue to effectively respond to today’s human rights challenges.

In 1978 the Legal Resources Trust was formed for the purpose of establishing, administering, and providing financial support to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC). The Centre itself came into being in 1979 as a voluntary association tasked with carrying out the objectives of the Trust. This dual structure was imperative at the time.

Before 1994, this meant protecting and supporting the rights of those who were oppressed by an unjust legal system and the discriminatory apartheid government of the time. After South Africa became a democracy in 1994 the role of the LRC changed.

The South African Constitution – which the founding members of the LRC were instrumental in drafting – came into effect in 1997, with a vision to “establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights”. At this time, the LRC extended its mandate to enforce the rights enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and to focus its work on protecting and promoting the Constitution and its promise of human rights for all. The Centre’s mandate was supported by the LRT who continued to hold financial accountability and strategic direction and oversight for the Centre.

Three decades after South Africa’s constitutional democracy was born, the country remains the most unequal in the world, with poor leadership in all three tiers of government leading to an erosion of socio-economic transformation and socio-political development in the country.