Celebrating ten years of translating socio-economic rights into reality : The Socio-Economic Rights Project of the Community Law Centre

Abstract

South Africa’s democracy has all the building blocks in place to facilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights. The 1996 Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socioeconomic rights can be realised. However, although South Africa has a Constitution hailed as the most progressive in the world and a broad range of institutions, actors, legislation and promising jurisprudence designed to promote human rights, translating these rights into tangible realities for poor and marginalised groups still remains a major challenge.