The post-apartheid government of 1994 is a product of the ‘Age of Rights’. Statemaking processes and the exercise of state powers is managed by the rule of law based on a constitution. Constitutionally recognised rights, and rights protection institutions, animate a transition from a legacy of Black political exclusion and underdevelopment. Intensifying class stratification and inequality constrain Black’s formal realisation of citizenship rights, placing great pressure on creative interpretation of constitutionally legitimated claims. My thesis examines the rights discourse informing the Constitution, particularly issues about the realisation of social and economic rights. I examine the unfolding of discourses on the right to housing between 1994 to 2008, to illustrate of the complexity of the discourse. Episodic housing protests suggest significant degrees of alienation, marginalisation, and disappointment with expectations of citizenship and the non-realisation of social and economic rights. Housing rights is an issue that will affect the democratic consolidation and political stability prospects of the new political order. I examine the interface between macro-economic policies, budgets, and the realisation of housing rights, and assess the impact of an identifiable configuration of forces expected to play important roles in realising a rights culture and broadening the discourse. My study draws on a spectrum of qualitative, interpretive, and analysis of discourse approaches, using data from: published articles, annual reports and archives, speeches, court proceedings and statements, interviews with persons whose scope of activities impact the unfolding of the concerned rights, namely, representatives of government departments, private sector developers, financing institutions, and civil society formations. My main findings are that few actors in the configuration support the view that the Constitution should be changed to make explicit the state’s obligations on the realisation of social and economic rights. Nevertheless, there are isolated cases of people expressing an absolute entitlement sense of rights --- the state should deliver when demands are made. My conclusions are that considerable political unrest about non-realisation of these rights will persist, but will not cause a collapse of the post-1994 political institutions and processes. More likely, political actors, legal scholars and jurists, will persistently engage the prevailing rights discourse and the variety of institutions acting towards their realisation, without effecting drastic changes to these, but always invoking positions about how they still are suited for a post-apartheid transformation project yet need critical interrogation and improvisation.

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No description available.

<p>The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the latest human rights treaty at the UN level. The process leading to the adoption called attention to the plight of persons with disabilities, and redefined approaches to issues of disability. Fundamentally, the CRPD embodies a paradigm shift in thinking about disability. It embraces the social model of disability, in terms of which disability is a function of the interaction between a person with impairment and his or her environment as opposed to an inherent limitation of functioning. The social model is, in turn, anchored in a human rights approach to disability. No doubt, the adoption of the CRPD triggered immense optimism for the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities. One of the rights recognised under the CRPD is the right to education. Article 24(1) of the CRPD recognises the right of persons with disabilities to education and sets out the aims of such education. Article 24(2) sets out a number of principles to guide the implementation of the right. These include: non-exclusion from the general education system including non-exclusion of children with disabilities from free and compulsory primary education / access to inclusive quality and free primary education on an equal basis with other children in the communities in which children with disabilities live / reasonable accommodation of a student&rsquo / s needs / provision of support necessary to facilitate effective education / and provision of individualised support measures in environments that maximise academic and social development of the students with disabilities. It is generally accepted that the right to education is one of the most essential rights, particularly in light of its empowerment function that helps to facilitate the exercise of other rights. The primary level of education has particularly attained global recognition and priority in resource allocation and implementation. Primary education contributes significantly to the maximum development of the full human potential of children. There are therefore differentiated obligations for the right to primary education in international human rights. Nevertheless, there are still significant barriers to access to primary education, particularly in the African region. While children with disabilities have been excluded from education for a long time the world over, their exclusion in the African context is particularly endemic. The core purpose of this thesis is to determine how article 24(2) of the CRPD affects or is likely to affect primary education of children with disabilities, particularly in the context of developing countries. The focus of the enquiry is mainly the law and policy in this regard. The subject spans three main spheres of rights: children&rsquo / s rights, socioeconomic rights (particularly the right to education), and finally disability rights. Children&rsquo / s rights, especially since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are generally accepted. The right to education also has a long standing history, and whereas debate regarding the appropriate approaches to its implementation still abides, there is apparent normative and jurisprudential consensus on some aspects thereof, particularly at the primary education level. It is essential to determine the relational framework of these spheres with the disability rights established under the CRPD. The thesis finds that the CRPD does in fact redefine the parameters of the right to education as previously understood in international human rights instruments. Particularly, the expanded aims of education under article 24 call for education systems that recognise non-academic learning, such as the development of the talents or creativity of the learner. This provision is particularly significant to the child with disabilities. Also, while not establishing an entirely new right, the principles under article 24(2) establish actionable sub-entitlements that enhance the justiciability right to education for children with disabilities. However, it is apparent from the comparative studies that it is the implementation of these provisions that presents the greatest challenge for the realisation of primary education for children with disabilities. This suggests that whereas norm creation as under the CRPD may have the value of triggering and sustaining discourse on appropriate responses in the context of the education of children with disabilities, it is the translation of these norms into practical action points that is the determining factor for realization of the right.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

<p>The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the latest human rights treaty at the UN level. The process leading to the adoption called attention to the plight of persons with disabilities, and redefined approaches to issues of disability. Fundamentally, the CRPD embodies a paradigm shift in thinking about disability. It embraces the social model of disability, in terms of which disability is a function of the interaction between a person with impairment and his or her environment as opposed to an inherent limitation of functioning. The social model is, in turn, anchored in a human rights approach to disability. No doubt, the adoption of the CRPD triggered immense optimism for the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities. One of the rights recognised under the CRPD is the right to education. Article 24(1) of the CRPD recognises the right of persons with disabilities to education and sets out the aims of such education. Article 24(2) sets out a number of principles to guide the implementation of the right. These include: non-exclusion from the general education system including non-exclusion of children with disabilities from free and compulsory primary education / access to inclusive quality and free primary education on an equal basis with other children in the communities in which children with disabilities live / reasonable accommodation of a student&rsquo / s needs / provision of support necessary to facilitate effective education / and provision of individualised support measures in environments that maximise academic and social development of the students with disabilities. It is generally accepted that the right to education is one of the most essential rights, particularly in light of its empowerment function that helps to facilitate the exercise of other rights. The primary level of education has particularly attained global recognition and priority in resource allocation and implementation. Primary education contributes significantly to the maximum development of the full human potential of children. There are therefore differentiated obligations for the right to primary education in international human rights. Nevertheless, there are still significant barriers to access to primary education, particularly in the African region. While children with disabilities have been excluded from education for a long time the world over, their exclusion in the African context is particularly endemic. The core purpose of this thesis is to determine how article 24(2) of the CRPD affects or is likely to affect primary education of children with disabilities, particularly in the context of developing countries. The focus of the enquiry is mainly the law and policy in this regard. The subject spans three main spheres of rights: children&rsquo / s rights, socioeconomic rights (particularly the right to education), and finally disability rights. Children&rsquo / s rights, especially since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are generally accepted. The right to education also has a long standing history, and whereas debate regarding the appropriate approaches to its implementation still abides, there is apparent normative and jurisprudential consensus on some aspects thereof, particularly at the primary education level. It is essential to determine the relational framework of these spheres with the disability rights established under the CRPD. The thesis finds that the CRPD does in fact redefine the parameters of the right to education as previously understood in international human rights instruments. Particularly, the expanded aims of education under article 24 call for education systems that recognise non-academic learning, such as the development of the talents or creativity of the learner. This provision is particularly significant to the child with disabilities. Also, while not establishing an entirely new right, the principles under article 24(2) establish actionable sub-entitlements that enhance the justiciability right to education for children with disabilities. However, it is apparent from the comparative studies that it is the implementation of these provisions that presents the greatest challenge for the realisation of primary education for children with disabilities. This suggests that whereas norm creation as under the CRPD may have the value of triggering and sustaining discourse on appropriate responses in the context of the education of children with disabilities, it is the translation of these norms into practical action points that is the determining factor for realization of the right.</p>

Doctor Legum - LLD / The research problem of this study is the jurisprudential inconsistency in the application of the right in section 26(3) of the South African Constitution's Bill of Rights. The inconsistency is due to inadequate conceptualisation of the substantive requirements of meaningful engagement (ME) by the South African Constitutional Court (ConCourt). The central argument is that the development of a community engagement model based on the substantive requirements of ME will enhance the application of section 26(3). This study commences by illustrating the disempowering nature to the squatters of the apartheid evictions in South Africa. To tighten influx control, the apartheid regime introduced a battery of laws that disempowered the squatters. The apartheid-induced disempowerment of the squatters penetrated into the democratic dispensation. In the examination of the normative context of evictions post-1994, this study identifies six primary drivers for substantive involvement of the occupiers during evictions. The six primary drivers seek to address the disempowering trajectory during evictions.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / While the Constitutional Court has repeatedly enforced a duty to meaningfully engage with communities where the provision of basic social services and goods is at stake, uncertainty about the form, extent and quality of community engagement continues to negatively impact on development projects. The much publicised "toilet saga" in the Makhaza informal settlement in the Western Cape is a telling example. This problem is partly attributable to a lack of clarity about the legal foundations and basis of this duty. The research project explores such an approach by clarifying the proper legal and constitutional basis of the right to meaningfully participate in development projects and the delivery of basic social goods, and in so-doing, to place public participation in socio-economic rights on a sound legal and constitutional foundation. The project further seeks to develop a framework or best practice for the practical implementation of this right in the context of urban development projects.