Implementing the Socio-economic and Cultural Rights in Nigeria and South Africa: Justiciability of Economic Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-587
Author(s):  
Olaniyi Felix Olayinka
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights

Constitutionalising socio- economic and cultural rights (SERs) and the directive principles of state policy is an indication that a state is disposed to protect and enforce such rights. The classification of rights into political and economic goes a long way in determining the extent of rights enforcement in a nation. In Nigeria political rights are enforceable while economic rights remain unenforceable, but stand a better chance of enforcing political and economic rights under rights unification as in South Africa. Nonetheless, a state's obligation to protect SERs ultimately rests on the resources available to such a state.

Toward a Progressive Realisation of Socio-economic Rights in Ghana: A Socio-legal Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113
Author(s):  
Nana Tawiah Okyir
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
State Policy ◽  
National Development ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Judicial Activism ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Supreme Court

This article argues for the strengthening and entrenchment of socio-economic rights provisions in Ghana's jurisprudence. The purpose of this entrenchment is to engender judicial activism in promoting more creative pathways for enforcing socio-economic rights in Ghana. The article traces the development of socio-economic rights in Ghana's jurisprudence, especially the influence of the requirements of the international rights movement, particularly of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The article delves into the constitutional history of Ghana and its impact on the evolution of rights in the country. Of particular historical emphasis is the emergence of socio-economic rights under the Directive Principles of State Policy in the 1979 Constitution. However, the significance of the socio-economic rights only became profound with the return to democratic rule under the 1992 Constitution, again under a distinct chapter on Directive Principles of State Policy. However, unlike its counterpart, the chapter on the Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms, which is directly enforceable, the Directive Principles of State Policy were not. It took the Supreme Court of Ghana a series of landmark decisions until finally, in 2008, it arrived at a presumption of justiciability in respect of all of the provisions in the 1992 Constitution. It is evident that prior to this, the Supreme Court was not willing to apply the same standards of adjudication and enforcement as it ordinarily applies in respect of rights under the chapter on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms. Having surmounted the non-justiciability hurdle, what is left is for the courts to begin to vigorously pursue an agenda that puts socio-economic rights at the centre of Ghana's rights adjudication framework. The article draws on comparative experiences from India and South Africa to showcase the extent of judicial creativity in rights adjudication. In India, the courts have been able to work around provisions restricting the enforcement of Directive Principles by often connecting them to Fundamental Freedoms. In South Africa, there is no hierarchy between civil and political rights on the one hand and socio-economic rights on the other; for that reason, the courts give equal ventilation to both sets of rights. The article further analyses these examples in the light of ongoing constitutional reforms in Ghana. It argues that these reforms fall short of the activism required to propel socio-economic rights adjudication to the forefront in Ghana's jurisprudence. In this regard, the article proposes social movements as a viable tool for socio-economic rights advocacy by recounting its success in previous controversial issues in Ghana. The article also connects this to other important building blocks like building socio-economic rights into a national development blueprint. Overall, the article calls for an imaginative socio-economic rights enforcement approach that is predicated on legislation, judicial activism, social movements and a national development blueprint aimed at delivering a qualitative life for the Ghanaian.

scholarly journals Neglecting Social and Economic Rights Violations in Transitional Justice: Long-Term Effects on Accountability: Empirical Findings from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-124
Author(s):  
Tine Destrooper
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
International Profile

This article builds on theories about the expressive function of law and uses Structural Topic Modelling to examine how the prioritisation of civil and political rights (CPR) issues by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has affected the agendas of Cambodian human rights NGOs with an international profile. It asks whether these NGOs’ focus on CPR issues can be traced back to the near-exclusive focus on CPR issues by the court, and whether this has implications for the creation of a “thick” kind of human rights accountability. It argues that, considering the nature of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal policy, it would have been within the mandate and capacity of the court to pay more attention to actions that also constituted violations of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR). The fact that the court did not do this and instead almost completely obscured ESCR rhetorically has triggered a similar blind spot for ESCR issues on the part of human rights NGOs, which could have otherwise played an important role in creating a culture of accountability around this category of human rights. Does this mean that violators of ESCR are more likely to escape prosecution going forward?

scholarly journals Is the Non-Justiciability of Economic and Socio-Cultural Rights in the Nigerian constitution Unassailable? Re-Examining Judicial Bypass from the Lens of South African and Indian Experiences

FIAT JUSTISIA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Hemen Philip Faga ◽  
Francis Aloh ◽  
Uchechukwu Uguru
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
South African ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Judicial Decisions

The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended (CFRN) recognizes the entitlement of every Nigerian within its borders to enjoy economic and socio-cultural (ESC) rights under Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. However, the constitution seemingly renders these ESC rights non-justiciable or unenforceable. This paper examines the efforts of the Nigerian judiciary to bypass the non-Justiciability provision to enforce ESC rights in Nigeria. It mainly investigates the role of judicial decisions in other similar jurisdictions such as South Africa and India in shaping the jurisprudence of the enforcement of ESC rights in Nigeria. Therefore, the paper adopts the comparative method and recommends that both the Nigerian legislature and the judiciary should follow the example of enforcement of ESC rights in these other jurisdictions.

scholarly journals BRIDGING THE INTERNATIONAL GAP: THE ROLE OF NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES IN AFRICA

Obiter ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliyu Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Human ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
National Human Rights Institutions ◽  
Domestic Level

While most of the United Nations (UN) treaties have committees to monitor the implementation of their provisions among their States parties, one of the major challenges they encounter is their inability to independently verify the information provided by the States parties, on the level of fulfilling their obligations to the treaties. However, the establishment of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) by the majority of UN member states was meant to not only promote and protect human rights within the territories of States parties, but also to monitor the implementation of the provisions of treaties at the domestic level. This resulted in treaty bodies to encourage NHRIs, in monitoring and providing it with information on the level of implementation of the provisions of these treaties within the territories of respective States parties. This article examines whether these institutions in Africa have been able to discharge their mandates concerning the implementation of two treaties, namely, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which is monitored by the Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which is overseen by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The NHRIs of South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria have been selected to test the effectiveness of these institutions. The study ultimately shows that the majority of these institutions are still far off from achieving their potential.

scholarly journals Supporting Individual and Society as One of the Principles of Citizenship Rights in Islamic Republic of Iran

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Mohammad Saeed Shafiei ◽  
Meysam Nematollahi
Keyword(s):  
Political Rights ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Islamic Republic Of Iran ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
International Conventions

Citizenship rights is an obvious issue and one must defend the rights of citizens; but at the same time, we must consider the social realities of a society. When one speaks of the rights of citizens in a society, it does not mean to abide it and this right must be respected especially by government officials. To achieve this objective, the emphasis on understanding, implementation, and observance of citizenship rights should become as a culture and the government should do its supportive measures and efforts fairly and accurately so that social anomalies that are rooted in the lack of abiding citizenship rights, do not spread in the society. Therefore, it should be said that citizens, society, and the government are the three vertices if citizenship rights triangle, as the existence of all vertices is necessary. In this article, we discuss the concepts of citizenship rights and evaluate and assess the supporting principles of the individual and society which are considered as the government’s duties. The reason for studying this issue is to find out why to support individual and society rights? Is this support a citizenship right? The aim of this study is to review citizenship rights including socio-political rights, economic rights and social welfare, judicial and cultural rights as well as supporting principles of the individual and society. To do this study, articles, and various books were studied and fundamentals of supporting the individual and society were developed and extracted. This review showed that supporting individual and community are including citizenship rights, and has been emphasized in all laws and international conventions.

scholarly journals Concept and Classification of Functions of State Policy in the Field of Ensuring Economic Security of the State

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
D. O. Koshikov
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Control

The phenomenon of the state’s functions as the main directions of its activity for the fulfillment of tasks and the purpose of its existence in a specific period of development, their peculiarities and types have been studied. Based on the analysis of scientific works on the implementation of state policy in the sphere of economy and social and humanitarian sphere, the author has defined own definition of the functions of state policy in the sphere of economic security. In particular, the author has emphasized that they could be considered, first of all, as general directions of the state’s activity to create a stable economic security system, which includes a legal framework, a list of agencies authorized to implement regulatory requirements, a system of defined principles, forms and methods of implementation policies, etc; and, secondly, as separate groups of homogeneous actions of public administration subjects on the regulation, development and protection of social economic relations, ensuring the realization of socio-economic rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as creating conditions for further development and growth of the national economy. Based on the first approach, the regulatory, institutional, regulatory and law enforcement functions of public policy in the field of economic security should be distinguished. According to the second direction, the following functions can be considered: information-analytical, planning, organization, interaction and coordination, accounting and control. The obtained results are the integral part of the author’s scientific research on determining the administrative and legal foundations of the implementation of state policy in the sphere of economic security of Ukraine and can be used for carrying out other fundamental and applied scientific researches in the field of national security of the state.

scholarly journals The concept of human rights in the political and legal doctrine of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries of 1917-1921

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Muzyka I.
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The genesis of rights and freedoms in the history of Ukrainian state-building is closely linked to the activities of Ukrainian political parties and their leaders. Today, in the face of the global economic crisis and the coronavirus epidemic, the concept of human and citizen rights and freedoms is subject to skepticism and criticism. Reassessing the experiences of previous generations can help find ways to overcome a crisis. The concept of the human rights of the UPSR can be characterized as a collectivist, which, in accordance with the idea of prioritizing the interests of the dominant class of workers over the interests of the individual, significantly limited the political and economic rights and freedoms of a large part of the population. At the same time, the concept contained, at the time, quite advanced provisions on equal rights between men and women and national minorities, the provision of equal suffrage, the right to free education and the use of cultural and economic institutions, etc. The concept did not contain a clear division of human rights and citizens into their types. In particular, some economic, social and cultural rights were included in the list of political rights. A significant influence on the formation of the list of rights and freedoms and their content was made by the model of the future socialist Ukrainian state M. Hrushevsky, who was in fact the ideological inspirer of the leadership of the UPSR throughout the party's existence. The basic principles of the concept of human rights of the UPSR were reflected in the Constitution of the UNR in 1918. Keywords: Ukrainian Party of Revolutionary Socialists, Human Rights and Freedoms, M. Hrushevsky, Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), Constitution of the UNR in 1918.

Provision of Remedies for Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Regional Monitoring ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Receive

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.

QUO VADIS HUKUM ISLAM (ANTARA IDEALITAS DAN REALITAS INDONESIA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Dinda Izzati
Keyword(s):  
Political Rights ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Eastern Indonesia ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
The Right

Evidently, a few months after the Jakarta Charter was signed, Christian circles from Eastern Indonesia submitted an ultimatum, if the seven words in the Jakarta Charter were still included in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, then the consequence was that they would not want to join the Republic of Indonesia. The main reason put forward by Pastor Octavian was that Indonesia was seen from its georaphical interests and structure, Western Indonesia was known as the base of Islamic camouflage, while eastern Indonesia was the basis for Christian communities. Oktavianus added that Christians as an integral part of this nation need to realize that they also have the right to life, religious rights, political rights, economic rights, the same rights to the nation and state as other citizens, who in fact are mostly Muslims. This paper aims to determine and understand the extent to which the basic assumptions of the Indonesian people view the role of Islam as presented in an exclusive format.

Housing as a Basic Human Right: A Reflection on South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mziwandile Sobantu ◽  
Nqobile Zulu ◽  
Ntandoyenkosi Maphosa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This paper reflects on human rights in the post-apartheid South Africa housing context from a social development lens. The Constitution guarantees access to adequate housing as a basic human right, a prerequisite for the optimum development of individuals, families and communities. Without the other related socio-economic rights, the provision of access to housing is limited in its service delivery. We argue that housing rights are inseparable from the broader human rights discourse and social development endeavours underway in the country. While government has made much progress through the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the reality of informal settlements and backyard shacks continues to undermine the human rights prospects of the urban poor. Forced evictions undermine some poor citizens’ human rights leading courts to play an active role in enforcing housing and human rights through establishing a jurisprudence that invariably advances a social development agenda. The authors argue that the post-1994 government needs to galvanise the citizenship of the urban poor through development-oriented housing delivery.

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