Our Mission

The Helen Suzman Foundation, or HSF, was founded in 1993 to honour the life work of Helen Suzman. HSF is inspired by the values espoused by Helen Suzman throughout her public life and in her devotion to public service.

HSF promotes constitutional democracy, rule of law and human rights. Our mission is to ensure that key institutions of constitutional democracy in South Africa are strengthened and protected so that they, domestically and internationally, deliver on the Constitution’s promise.

To achieve this, we:

undertake public interest litigation that safeguards the rights of vulnerable persons who are unable to utilise the ordinary political process in order to do so;
support public advocacy interventions and dialogue that promote public participation and deliberation and so result in informed, reasoned decision-making; and,
end impunity for systematic criminal conduct destructive of a constitutional state — whether for state capture-related crimes or apartheid era atrocities.

"From Helen I learnt that there could be no compromise on human rights, but that it was essential to be correct on the law and accurate with the facts.” – John Dugard.