A constitution often has an important chapter where it lists and explains human rights – constitutions and human rights go hand-in-hand. Our 1996 Constitution has South Africa’s Bill of Rights.

This means that our democracy is built on those rights. Every single person in our country has those rights. They are specially chosen to support democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.

Just because you are a human in South Africa, you deserve those rights. You have them forever and no-one can take them away from you.

This Bill of Rights is the part of the Constitution that directly touches every person’s life. Most of the ground-breaking cases decided in the Constitutional Court have been to do with people being denied their human rights. For example, children, women, gay people and workers have won cases that make sure they have their rights. Organisations have won the right to be able to get information from government.