The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, as part of a resolution to transform the world that we live in and to achieve sustainable development for all. They came into effect in January 2016, and should continue to guide the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) policy and funding until 2030.

Despite the significant progress that has been made in addressing gender inequalities, women are still amongst the most marginalized groups of society. According to a report on poverty and inequality compiled by Dr Ingrid Woolard; Africans account for 95% of people classed as ‘poor’ in South Africa, and 77% are women living in rural areas.

In May 2017 the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, released the South African Law Reform Commission’s Report on Project 107 – Adult Prostitution. Subsequently, during March 2018, Parliament’s Multi-Party Women’s Caucus held public hearings on the report, which advocates the complete criminalization of prostitution.

Traditional leadership is one of the oldest institutions in Africa. During the pre-colonial periods, traditional governance and traditional leadership played a vital role in local communities. Traditional authorities were viewed as heads of their people and leaders of their communities.

In July 2018, US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions issued a directive codifying changes in policy with regard to asylum applications. These included instructions that officials adjudicating the claims of asylum seekers should not take into account any claims based on escape from domestic violence or gangsterism.

The Public Protector is one of the six ‘State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy’ provided for in Chapter 9 of the Constitution, and consequently known as ‘Chapter 9 Institutions’. In many other countries, especially in Scandinavia, where the idea originated, the equivalent of our Public Protector is known as an Ombudsman.

Climate change represents one of the most globally urgent challenges of our time, with far- reaching environmental, social, economic and political implications. There is almost complete consensus that the rise in global temperatures is primarily due to greenhouse gases (GHGs), emitted into the atmosphere through human activities, and that this is causing rapid climate change.

According to some estimates, up to one in 13 of all South African men aged between 18 and 65 are arrested annually – what happens to them, and to the much smaller number of women and juveniles arrested every year, should be of major concern to us all.

Are South African political actors too quick to ask the country’s judges to referee their disputes? Ordinarily, in a stable and orderly democracy, it is highly desirable that people, and the parties and factions that they constitute, should ‘go the legal route’ rather than settle their differences by force, or bribery, or by any of the myriad other underhand methods that are typically associated with the world of politics.

Wednesday 20th June marked World Refugee Day for 2018. Recent reports have indicated that there were 68.5m refugees across the world at the end of 2017, 2.9m more than at the end of 2016.