explicated in policies and laws that ensure that government and other powerful institutions in our society do indeed promote, protect, respect and fulfil all the human rights for all people in our country without distinction of any kind. Chairperson, given the systemic economic and social exclusion of black people under apartheid regime, the constitution provides for corrective measures to ensure that South Africans that suffered from land dispossession, exclusion from the economy the denial of qualitative education and other deprivations, to ensure that the substantive equality of all people becomes a shared goal of a new South Africa. The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act of 2000 and the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. The Bill criminalises hate speech and provides for the prosecution of persons who commit hate crimes. Furthermore, South Africa has launched the National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in line with the provisions of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The justiciability of these provisions have been also been tested in our courts, by among others. organisations such as AfriForum. My delegation wishes to reiterate that because of our history, South Africa is a highly unequal society and has high levels of poverty. The poorest South Africans are black, largely in rural areas. Statistical data on crime and violence indicate quite clearly that those who work and live on farms are not disproportionately targeted. Nonetheless, the South African government is committed to protecting all South Africans from violent crime. Indeed, numerous studies show that crime in farming communities is largely opportunistic. Contrary to the irresponsible claims of some lobby group, killings on farms are not ethnic cleansing. They are not genocidal. They are acts of criminality and must be treated as such. Nonetheless, the South African government is committed to protecting all South Africans from violent crimes. 3