Socio-Economic Rights Project (SERP): Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 130
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Putting Flesh on the Skeleton: South African Judicial Enforcement of the Right to Adequate Housing of Those Subject to Evictions
(Human Rights Law Review, 2008)Access to adequate housing is one of the greatest challenges facing the South African government today. The country’s housing situation is characterised by a severe housing shortage, a huge backlog in the provision of ... -
Basic rights claims How responsive is ‘reasonableness review’?
(ESR Review, 2004)South Africa’s 1996 Constitution (the Constitution) is widely renowned for its holistic, inclusive Bill of Rights. A particular innovation is its inclusion of a wide range of fully justiciable socio-economic rights. There ... -
Advancing the Right to Adequate Housing of Desperately Poor People: City of Johannesburg v. Rand Properties
(Human Rights Brief, 2006)Inadequate housing, the growth and overcrowding of informal settlements, and the occupation of private land and abandoned buildings are prevalent in South Africa. The result is that many of the country’s most vulnerable — ... -
Fair Trial Rights and Their Relation to the Death Penalty in Africa
(International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 2006)A fair trial is a basic element of the notion of the rule of law, and the principles of ‘due process’ and ‘the rule of law’ are fundamental to the protection of human rights. At the centre of any legal system, therefore, ... -
Giving money to children: the state's constitutional obligations to provide child support grants to child headed households
(South African Journal on Human Rights, 2004)One of the most tangible effects of the HIV epidemic is the growing number of orphans and the emergence in ever increasing amounts of households headed by children. These new family configurations pose a wide range of ... -
The relevance of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for older persons in South Africa
(ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 2011)The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (UDHR) recognises that '[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights' (article 1). This equality in dignity and rights applies irrespective of age. The ... -
Social Citizenship: A Precondition for Meaningful Democracy
(Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 1999)In 1959, the scholar, TH Marshall, analysed the historical development of those features that were vital to effective 'citizenship'. He viewed democratisation as a progression, spanning three centuries. Civil rights were ... -
Breaking new ground : the need for a protocol to the African Charter on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa
(African Human Rights Law Journal, 2005)The 1980s saw the drafting and adoption of international treaties on the abolition of the death penalty. In the European and Inter-American human rights systems, steps have been taken to abolish the death penalty by means ... -
Engaging the paradoxes of the universal and particular in human rights adjudication: The possibilities and pitfalls of ‘meaningful engagement’
(African Human Rights Law Journal, 2012)This article examines the disjunctures between the universal aspiration of human rights norms and the complexity of their interpretation and application in diverse and pluralistic contexts. It examines the extent to which ... -
Taking those with special housing needs from the doldrums of neglect : a call for a comprehensive and coherent policy on special needs housing
(Law, Democracy & Development, 2007)A growing awareness of the differentiation of need within the broad categorisation of the poor has led to an evolving focus on special needs or vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and the disabled. There is, therefore, ... -
South Africa's evolving jurisprudence on socio-economic rights: An effective tool in challenging poverty
(Law, Democracy & Development, 2002)The drafters of the Constitution clearly envisaged a far-reaching role for it in the transformation of post-apartheid society.' Among the key aims of the Constitution is to "improve the quality of life of all citizens and ... -
Enforcing housing rights
(ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 2009)On 27 March 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned a High Court judgment ordering the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (the municipality) to buy land which had been unlawfully occupied by about 76 families ... -
Needs, rights and transformation: adjudicating social rights
(Stellenbosch Law Review, 2006)One of the most contested issues in South Africa’s burgeoning jurisprudence on social rights relates to how the courts should enforce the duties imposed by these rights. Debate has focused in particular on the extent to ... -
Correcting the historical asymmetry between rights : the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(African Human Rights Law Journal, 2009)On 10 December 2008, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Optional Protocol ensures that, just like victims ... -
The value of human dignity in interpreting socio-economic rights
(South African Journal on Human Rights, 2005)There has been considerable criticism of the use of human dignity as a guiding value in the context of South Africa's equality jurisprudence. What are the implications of the use of the value in socio-economic rights ... -
Promoting cooperation between the UN and African human rights systems
(ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 2012)During the NGO Forum preceding the 52nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, held in Yamoussoro, Cote d'Ivoire, in October 2012, the Community Law Centre (CLC), University of the Western ... -
Non-implementation of court orders in socioeconomic rights litigation in South Africa Is the cancer here to stay?
(2008)Over 12 years have elapsed since the South African Constitution was adopted, and the jurisprudence on socio-economic rights has increased considerably. Yet a majority of the population remain entrapped in poverty. -
Confronting the problem of polycentricity in enforcing the socioeconomic rights in the South African Constitution
(SA Publiekreg = SA Public Law, 2008)The judicial enforcement of the socio-economic rights contained in the South African Constitution (Constitution) has not been without controversy when compared to the judicial enforcement of civil and political rights. ... -
The role of transboundary dialogue : a response to Stephen Ellmann
(Constitutional Court Review, 2009)The novelty of Ellmann's paper derives primarily from the fact that it moves beyond the separation of powers and counter-majoritarian based critiques and analyses that have dominated academic discourse about South African ... -
Bolstering the protection of economic, social and cultural rights under the Malawian Constitution
(Malawi Law Journal, 2007)The Malawian Constitution protects a handful of socio-economic rights in the Bill of Rights and enshrines the rest as part of directive principles of national policy. The only socio-economic rights expressly protected in ...