Socio-Economic Rights Project (SERP)
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The Socio-Economic Rights Project, which focuses on the realization of the socio-economic rights of groups and communities living in poverty.
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Browsing by Author "Durojaye, Ebenezer"
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Item Accountability and the right to food: A comparative study of India and South Africa(Food Security SA Working Paper Series, 2018) Durojaye, Ebenezer; Chilemba, Enoch MacDonnellIt remains a great source of concern that, as richly endowed as the world is, each day millions of people go to sleep hungry and almost 870 million people, particularly in developing countries, are chronically undernourished. Also, every year, 6 million children die, directly or indirectly, from the consequences of undernourishment and malnutrition – that is, 1 child every 5 seconds. The international community at various forums in the last twenty years or so have committed to ending undernourishment in the world. The right to adequate food is guaranteed in a number of international and regional human rights instruments. Despite these developments, many countries have not lived up to their obligations to realise this right. South Africa and India provide an interesting comparison. On one hand, South Africa has a progressive constitution that explicitly guarantees the right to food, while the Indian Constitution does not recognise the right to food as justiciable right. Yet the Indian courts have developed rich jurisprudence to hold the government accountable for failing to realise the right to food of the people. Indeed the courts have played key roles in ensuring the judicialisation of the right to adequate food in India in the wake of the fact that the Constitution does not expressly set out the right. This report shows that South Africa can learn from the Indian experience by using litigation as a tool for holding the government accountable to its obligation under international and national laws. Besides litigating the right to food to hold the government accountable, it is noted that chapter 9 institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the Gender Equality Commission and the Public Protector all have important roles to play in holding the government accountable to the realisation of the right to food. This is because these institutions are constitutionally empowered to monitor and report on the measures and steps taken by the government towards the realisation of socioeconomic rights, including the right to food under the Constitution. The report concludes by noting that civil society groups in South Africa will need to be more active in monitoring steps and measures adopted by the government to realise the right to food. It also notes that, where necessary, litigation can be employed as a useful strategy to hold the government to account for its obligation to realise the right to food.Item Contribution of the health Ombud to accountability: The life Esidimeni tragedy in South Africa(Health and Human Rights Journal, 2018) Durojaye, Ebenezer; Agaba, Daphine KabagambeBetween October 2015 and June 2016, 1,711 people were relocated from mental health facilities operated by long-term provider Life Esidimeni in the South African province of Gauteng to alternative facilities managed by multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The result of the change in providers, and the manner in which the transfers were managed, became a tragedy that culminated in the death of 144 mental health care patients and the exposure of 1,418 others to torture, trauma, and poor health outcomes. The state was unable to ascertain the whereabouts of a further 44 patients. The tragedy began in October 2015, when the then member of the Executive Council for health in the populous Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, announced the termination of a 40-year contract between the Department of Health and Life Esidimeni for the provision of mental health services. The NGO facilities to which the patients were transferred were ill prepared and ill equipped for the influx of patients. The tragedy drew further public attention in September 2016, when, responding to a question raised in Parliament, the member of the Executive Council for health said that about 36 former residents of Life Esidimeni had died under mysterious circumstances following their transfers. South Africa’s minister of health then requested that the newly established Office of the Health Ombud investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of mentally ill patients and advise on the way forward.Item Jumping the Queue', Waiting Lists and other Myths: Perceptions and Practice around Housing Demand and Allocation in South Africa(Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, and Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, 2013) Tissington, Kate; Munshi, Naadira; Mirugi-Mukundi, Gladys; Durojaye, EbenezerSince 1994 the South African government, through its National Housing Subsidy Scheme (NHSS), has embarked on the large-scale provision of state-subsidised housing to low-income households across the country. Over 2 million state-subsidised houses have been built during this period, predominantly through the project-linked subsidy programmeItem Promoting cooperation between the UN and African human rights systems(ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 2012) Durojaye, Ebenezer; Mirugi-Mukundi, Gladys; Tchoumavi, Boris-EphremDuring 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 Cape, in conjunction with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) held a seminar on the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council.