An explorative study on women's democratic participation and human rights in the Kwasani Municipality, Kwazulu-Natal.

Abstract

Women’s democratic participation and human rights have been studied on a large scale and the focus has been mainly on women who are members of political parties and members of parliament. Human rights are also studied when human rights violations occur during conflict, but ordinary communities tend to be disregarded and no one seeks to find out whether they know their human rights and on what scale are they being violated. Women’s democratic participation is not only limited to women who are members of parliament or political parties; some women’s human rights are violated every day and hence awareness of human rights important even when there is no conflict. This dissertation will explore how women from KwaSani Municipality exercise their democratic participation and will assess whether they are aware of their human rights, how these rights may be violated and where women go to address the violations.