The Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Africa critiques the three main models of constitutionally protecting economic, social and cultural rights in Africa - direct, indirect and hybrid models. It examines the choices that states have made, how the models have worked, whether they have been tested in litigation and the jurisprudence that has arisen. The book analyses the protection of the economic, social and cultural rights in a range of African countries: Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Leading legal academics explore how these rights feature at the regional and sub-regional levels, as well as the link between domestic and international mechanisms of enforcement.
"One purpose of this book is to respond to this shift: to look beyond the more abstract and ideological discussions of the nature of socio-economic rights in order to engage empirically with how such rights have manifested in international practice". -- INTRODUCTION.
The first edition of this text was a textbook on internationally recognized economic, social and cultural rights. While focusing on this category of rights, it also analyzed their relationships to other human rights, civil and political in particular. This revised edition updates the information.
The protection of economic, social and cultural rights is vital for everyone, no matter where they live. This volume sets out some of the important legal issues about these rights, including who has obligations, when they apply and how they are relevant to contemporary concerns, such as trade and democracy.
This exciting Research Handbook combines practitioner and academic perspectives to provide a comprehensive, cutting edge analysis of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), as well as the connection between ESCR and other rights. Offering an authoritative analysis of standards and jurisprudence, it argues for an expansive and inclusive approach to ESCR as human rights.
Ten years after the coming into force of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, this volume presents an analysis of its progress so far. Looking both backward and forward it provides a reflection on successes and achievements of the past, as well as setting an agenda for the future.
Since the first edition (published in 2009), there have been several important treaty developments, including the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) on individual communications, and significant developments in the case law on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The second edition addresses these developments and explores ESC rights from foundational issues to substantive rights and systems of protection. It has been fully updated to include new material and up-to-date coverage of the case law of human rights bodies and national courts on ESC rights. In addition to the rights to health, education and work covered in the first edition, the second edition analyses new developments, such as the rights to adequate food, water and sanitation, adequate housing, social security and cultural rights. It also considers several contemporary issues including the extraterritorial human rights obligations of states in the area of economic, social and cultural rights; non-state actors; relationship of the ICESCR to other areas of international law; the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR; regional protection of ESC rights; more examples of the domestic protection of ESC rights; the protection of ESC rights of vulnerable groups; contemporary challenges to ESC rights, including poverty, corruption, armed conflicts and terrorism. It concludes by exploring the possible establishment of a World Court of Human Rights.
The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.