South Africa’s Bill of Rights

Linocut on paper
Norman Kaplan, 1996

Following an open national competition in newly democratic South Africa, Norman Kaplan’s artwork, South Africa’s Bill of Rights, was selected as the cover for a print portfolio, ‘Images of Human Rights’, that was issued by the Artists for Human Rights Trust in 1996.

All the prints, including this one of Kaplan’s, and his All Shall Be Afforded Dignity, are engraved into windows in the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s Bill of Rights is the preamble to the 1996 Constitution, drawn from the 1955 declaration of the people known as the ‘Freedom Charter’, created by the Congress of the People – a multi-racial gathering of representatives for a two-day meeting in Johannesburg (Kliptown, Soweto) to create a vision for a South Africa free from apartheid. At that gathering, along with Dr Dadoo (Chair of the South African Communist Party), Chief Albert Luthuli (President of the African National Congress), Bishop Trevor Huddleston, later the President of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and ACTSA, was presented with the Isitwalandwe Medal by the African National Congress, for outstanding commitment to the liberation struggle.

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