The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCRN) has warned that the country is falling short on economic, social, and cultural rights despite progress in civil and political rights.
ELCRN associate general secretary Maureen Dausas says these rights include the right to food, housing, education and proper living standards.
However, there is general consensus that Namibia is performing relatively well regarding civil and political rights, she says.
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Dausas said this at a one-day workshop on the state of human rights in Namibia, held in Windhoek recently.
She said everyone has the right to life and to the means necessary for the proper development of life as per Namibia's Constitution.
"These means are primarily food, clothing, shelter, rest and medical care. All people should be treated with dignity. We are all made equal," Dausas said.
Lawyer Norman Tjomba supports Dausas' claims, saying while the country's commitment to the upholding the human rights of its citizens is admirable compared to the rest of the continent, when using the Namibian Constitution as a yardstick, the country seriously lacks in the implementation of measures and programmes to adhere and promote social and economic rights.
"One only has to look at the terrible state of our healthcare facilities, the lack of adequate class rooms for pupils, and the unmitigated disaster that is housing to know that the overwhelming majority of the citizens, who are also the poor and indignant, are not enjoying the benefits of democracy," Tjombe says.
He says much structural systematic poverty requires drastic and deliberate action to dismantle it, and the national budget does not demonstrate this.
"The political will to address these shortcomings is in short supply," he says.
He says poverty, unemployment and inequality are currently some of the biggest threats to democracy in Namibia.
Former media ombudsman and human rights law lecturer John Nakuta says Namibia is currently doing a good job in terms of upholding human rights, as its efforts to address corruption stands at 54.4%, the rule of law 62.6%, press freedom at 80.2%, and political rights at 79.1%.
The purpose of the workshop was to assess the status of human rights in Namibia and to prepare an alternate or complementary report for consideration by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as part of the Universal Periodic Review Processes (PRP).
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The PRP mechanism is a peer review process through which United Nations member states evaluate each other's human rights every three to four years.
The workshop was organised by the ELCRN's desk for social development and the socio-economic justice unit of the Council of Churches in Namibia, with financial support from the Lutheran World Federation.
