Magister Legum - LLM / Access to adequate housing is an important socio-economic right and is of central importance for the enjoyment of all rights. The right to access adequate housing is viewed as a fundamental human right and has been described in both International Law and by the South African courts as being essential to the dignity of human beings. Access to adequate housing thus plays an important part in ensuring human dignity for all persons. It is also one of the key elements needed to ensure that all persons have access to an adequate standard of living. Access to adequate housing further plays a vital role in maintaining and improving the lives of all people as it provides both security and shelter. In modern day South Africa, access to adequate housing is held in very high regard. This is evident in the recognition it has received in the National Development Plan as two of the fourteen outcomes of the plan are to ensure that “all people are and feel safe” and “sustainable human settlements and improved quality of household life.” The drafters of the South African Constitution recognised the importance of access to adequate housing as provision was made for the right to access adequate housing in the Final Constitution in section 26. In considering the report submitted by South Africa, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights indicated (hereinafter referred to as the “Committee on ESCR”) the housing landscape in South Africa continues to be divided as a result of the past and that the apartheid spatial divide continues to dominate the landscape. Viljoen notes that despite numerous attempts to transform the housing regime from one which was grossly discriminatory to a welfare-orientated legal system that functions under the auspices of the rights and values entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa the poorest households in South Africa remain subject to not only a lack of access to housing but also intolerable housing conditions. He writes further that the judicial enforcement of the right to access adequate housing is a difficult, complex and multi-layered issue with which the courts have been grappling for some time. An examination of the housing rights jurisprudence reveals that housing rights and access to adequate housing has been one of the most fiercely contested and frequently litigated topics in the country. The jurisprudence also shows that housing is an area where much legislative, policy and infrastructure progress has been made.

This paper proposes a judicial advocacy strategy aimed to challenge the constitutionality of the law that imposes an absolute prohibition of abortion in Chile. Examines the origin of the criminalization provisions in light to the constitutional mandate to protect the life of the unborn, presents an overview of the arguments used in the legislative to request the partial decriminalization of abortion, the tendency of the executive in the past years in this matter, and the criminal strategy that has been used in cases where women have been prosecuted by abortion, based on what has been intended so far the paper conclude a solicitude to declare unconstitutional the criminal abortion provisions because they do not protect the life of the unborn.

This paper proposes a judicial advocacy strategy aimed to challenge the constitutionality of the law that imposes an absolute prohibition of abortion in Chile. Examines the origin of the criminalization provisions in light to the constitutional mandate to protect the life of the unborn, presents an overview of the arguments used in the legislative to request the partial decriminalization of abortion, the tendency of the executive in the past years in this matter, and the criminal strategy that has been used in cases where women have been prosecuted by abortion, based on what has been intended so far the paper conclude a solicitude to declare unconstitutional the criminal abortion provisions because they do not protect the life of the unborn.

Strategic litigation for the achievement of education rights for pregnant learners in Africa has emerged at both national and regional level in recent years. While it is important that the narrative shaped by these cases reflect a child-rights approach, informed by sufficient child participation and consideration of their views, a child-rights approach is not always followed, nor is the content of such an approach sufficiently explored in the literature. This study explores the theoretical content of a child-rights compliant approach to litigation as well as its application in African cases, and the effect that this approach or lack thereof has on children’s long-term enjoyment of their rights. The main question the research seeks to answer is whether strategic litigation on pregnant learners in Africa has effectively applied a child-rights compliant approach. In order to answer that question the scope and content of, and the normative basis for, a child-rights compliant approach to strategic litigation is explored. The research seeks to answer whether the cases before the African human rights system’s judicial bodies are compliant with such an approach. The main research question is complemented by secondary questions: What is the effect of a child-rights approach to impact litigation on access to education for pregnant learners in Africa, and what can future litigators do to improve child-rights compliance to litigation? The study reveals that the essential tenets of a child-rights approach consist of four crucial elements, namely a basis in conception of childhood as agentic as opposed to protectionist; procedural child-friendly access to justice; child participation through being heard and by being parties to a case; and rootedness in a child inclusive social movement. It concludes by making recommendations to various stakeholders towards improved implementation of a child-rights approach in strategic litigation. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) / Unrestricted

Esta pesquisa caracteriza-se pela interdisciplinaridade e tem como eixo integrador o desmatamento em Assentamentos de Reforma Agrária na Amazônia Legal, sob responsabilidade do INCRA, com foco na atuação do Grupo de Trabalho Amazônia Legal - GTAL, do Ministério Público Federal - MPF e na percepção jurídico-ambiental dos assentados no Estado de Rondônia. As metodologias utilizadas foram: estudo de caso, pesquisa documental, análise de conteúdo, pesquisa de campo, entrevistas com questionários abertos e fechados e análise estatística. As principais bases teóricas utilizadas foram: Aplicação Seletiva dos Direitos Sociais, Princípio da Proporcinalidade, Justiça Ambiental Participativa, Litígio Estratégico e Voluntarismo Político. Conclui-se que as atividades do GTAL, do MPF, do INCRA e do Poder Judiciário, até o momento, neste caso específico, não envolveram os assentados, do que decorre a necessidade de maior participação desses stakeholders para ampliação de resultados positivos em casos difíceis ambientais, no manejo de litígio estratégico. / This research is characterized by interdisciplinarity and focus the deforestation in Agrarian Reform Settlements, in the Legal Amazon, under the responsibility of INCRA, in order to examine the function of the Legal Amazon Working Group (GTAL), the Federal Public Prosecutor (MPF) and the legal and environmental perception of the settlers in the State of Rondônia. The methodologies used were: case study, documentary research, content analysis, field research, interviews with open and closed questionnaires and statistical analysis. The main theoretical bases used were: Selective Application of Social Rights, Principle of Proportionality, Participatory Environmental Justice, Strategic Litigation and Political Voluntarism. It is concluded that the activities of the GTAL, Public prosecutor, INCRA and the Judiciary, so far, in this specific case, did not involve the settlers, resulting in the need for greater participation of these stakeholders to increase positive results in difficult environmental cases, in litigation management strategic.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar quais os critérios utilizados pela Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos para judicializar demandas perante a Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos, tendo em vista ser o órgão legitimado para apresentar casos individuais ao tribunal. A Comissão desempenha um papel de filtro negativo de casos, tanto na análise de admissibilidade de petições iniciais, quanto no envio de casos à Corte IDH. Contudo, apesar dos requisitos previstos na Convenção Americana de Direitos Humanos, nem todos os casos que preenchem esses critérios são judicializados, conferindo ao órgão uma atuação opaca. Em razão disso, o presente trabalho busca verificar quais outros fatores determinantes poderiam ensejar as decisões da Comissão. Casos com determinadas características, sejam elas referentes ao perfil das vítimas, ao tipo de violação ou ao potencial impacto no país ou na região, possuem maiores chances de serem admitidos para análise e, potencialmente, enviados à Corte IDH. Nesse cenário, o este trabalho objetiva também analisar a atuação das ONGs de direitos humanos no papel de representantes das vítimas no Sistema Interamericano, tendo em vista que também utilizam critérios para selecionar quais casos terão seu apoio e defesa. As ONGs, atuando por meio de litígio estratégico, possuem um papel protagonista no Sistema Interamericano. A pergunta que a presente pesquisa visa responder é: a quem serve, afinal, o Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos? / The main objective of this work is to analyze the criteria used by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to submit cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, having in mind that the first body is the only legitimate to present individual cases to the court. The IACHR functions as a negative filter of cases, both admitting petitions to processing and deciding which cases will be sent to the IACourtHR. However, despite the requirements set by the American Convention on Human Rights, not all cases that fulfill these criteria are judicialized, providing the body a blurred and not transparent performance. Because of that, the present work seeks to verify what other determining factors could influence IACHR decisions. Cases with determined characteristics, be they regarding the profile of the victims, the type of violation or the potential impact they could cause in the country or in the region, have more chances in being admitted to processing and, later, sent to the IACourtHR. In this scenario, this work also aims to verify the performance of human rights NGOs playing the role of representatives of the victims in the Inter-American Human Rights System, taking into account that they also use specific requirements to select which cases will have their support and defense. NGOs, acting through strategic litigation, have a leading role in the Inter-American system. The main question this work intents to answer is: to whom, after all, serves the Inter-American Human Rights System?

Cortes e sociedade civil na América Latina estão em transformação, assim como a sua relação. Casos de grande repercussão social, decisões judiciais que incidem sobre políticas públicas, concentração de efeitos das sentenças, mecanismos de deliberação dentro dos processos são fenômenos relacionados a essas transformações. A tese deste trabalho é de que tanto o desenho institucional das cortes influencia a mobilização social jurídica, quanto a presença de uma forte mobilização social em torno das cortes pode influenciar não só a sua agenda de casos, mas também o seu desenho institucional. E esta relação precisa ser estudada de modo dinâmico e funcional. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas com organizações não governamentais, think tanks, acadêmicos, magistrados e agência financiadora na Argentina, Brasil e Colômbia. É a narrativa comparada desses atores que oferece as variáveis de desenho institucional e mobilização social jurídica relevantes para compreender essas transformações. O trabalho, por fim, aponta para a necessidade de reformulação das agendas dos atores envolvidos sobre como pensar a inter-relação entre cortes e sociedade civil, tanto em termos de experimentação prática, imaginação institucional, desafios teóricos e de legitimação. / Courts and civil society in Latin America are under transformation, as well as the relationship between them. Cases of great social repercussion, judicial decisions which affect public policies, concentration effects of judgments, deliberation mechanisms within the processes are phenomena related to these changes. The thesis of this work is that both the institutional design of the courts affect social legal mobilization and the presence of strong social mobilization around the courts can influence not only their cases agenda, but also its institutional design. This relationship needs to be studied in a dynamic and functional way. To this end, interviews were conducted with nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, scholars, judges and funding agencies in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. It is the compared narrative of these actors that offers the \"variables\" of institutional design and of legal and social mobilization that are relevant to understand these changes. The thesis finally points to the need to reform the agendas of the actors involved on the reflections about the interplay between courts and civil society, in terms of practical experimentation, institutional imagination, theoretical challenges and legitimation.

Cortes e sociedade civil na América Latina estão em transformação, assim como a sua relação. Casos de grande repercussão social, decisões judiciais que incidem sobre políticas públicas, concentração de efeitos das sentenças, mecanismos de deliberação dentro dos processos são fenômenos relacionados a essas transformações. A tese deste trabalho é de que tanto o desenho institucional das cortes influencia a mobilização social jurídica, quanto a presença de uma forte mobilização social em torno das cortes pode influenciar não só a sua agenda de casos, mas também o seu desenho institucional. E esta relação precisa ser estudada de modo dinâmico e funcional. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas com organizações não governamentais, think tanks, acadêmicos, magistrados e agência financiadora na Argentina, Brasil e Colômbia. É a narrativa comparada desses atores que oferece as variáveis de desenho institucional e mobilização social jurídica relevantes para compreender essas transformações. O trabalho, por fim, aponta para a necessidade de reformulação das agendas dos atores envolvidos sobre como pensar a inter-relação entre cortes e sociedade civil, tanto em termos de experimentação prática, imaginação institucional, desafios teóricos e de legitimação. / Courts and civil society in Latin America are under transformation, as well as the relationship between them. Cases of great social repercussion, judicial decisions which affect public policies, concentration effects of judgments, deliberation mechanisms within the processes are phenomena related to these changes. The thesis of this work is that both the institutional design of the courts affect social legal mobilization and the presence of strong social mobilization around the courts can influence not only their cases agenda, but also its institutional design. This relationship needs to be studied in a dynamic and functional way. To this end, interviews were conducted with nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, scholars, judges and funding agencies in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. It is the compared narrative of these actors that offers the \"variables\" of institutional design and of legal and social mobilization that are relevant to understand these changes. The thesis finally points to the need to reform the agendas of the actors involved on the reflections about the interplay between courts and civil society, in terms of practical experimentation, institutional imagination, theoretical challenges and legitimation.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar quais os critérios utilizados pela Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos para judicializar demandas perante a Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos, tendo em vista ser o órgão legitimado para apresentar casos individuais ao tribunal. A Comissão desempenha um papel de filtro negativo de casos, tanto na análise de admissibilidade de petições iniciais, quanto no envio de casos à Corte IDH. Contudo, apesar dos requisitos previstos na Convenção Americana de Direitos Humanos, nem todos os casos que preenchem esses critérios são judicializados, conferindo ao órgão uma atuação opaca. Em razão disso, o presente trabalho busca verificar quais outros fatores determinantes poderiam ensejar as decisões da Comissão. Casos com determinadas características, sejam elas referentes ao perfil das vítimas, ao tipo de violação ou ao potencial impacto no país ou na região, possuem maiores chances de serem admitidos para análise e, potencialmente, enviados à Corte IDH. Nesse cenário, o este trabalho objetiva também analisar a atuação das ONGs de direitos humanos no papel de representantes das vítimas no Sistema Interamericano, tendo em vista que também utilizam critérios para selecionar quais casos terão seu apoio e defesa. As ONGs, atuando por meio de litígio estratégico, possuem um papel protagonista no Sistema Interamericano. A pergunta que a presente pesquisa visa responder é: a quem serve, afinal, o Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos? / The main objective of this work is to analyze the criteria used by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to submit cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, having in mind that the first body is the only legitimate to present individual cases to the court. The IACHR functions as a negative filter of cases, both admitting petitions to processing and deciding which cases will be sent to the IACourtHR. However, despite the requirements set by the American Convention on Human Rights, not all cases that fulfill these criteria are judicialized, providing the body a blurred and not transparent performance. Because of that, the present work seeks to verify what other determining factors could influence IACHR decisions. Cases with determined characteristics, be they regarding the profile of the victims, the type of violation or the potential impact they could cause in the country or in the region, have more chances in being admitted to processing and, later, sent to the IACourtHR. In this scenario, this work also aims to verify the performance of human rights NGOs playing the role of representatives of the victims in the Inter-American Human Rights System, taking into account that they also use specific requirements to select which cases will have their support and defense. NGOs, acting through strategic litigation, have a leading role in the Inter-American system. The main question this work intents to answer is: to whom, after all, serves the Inter-American Human Rights System?

[pt] Esta tese, por meio de autores decoloniais, pós coloniais e pensamento afrodiaspórico, principalmente os pensadores do sul, busca a compreensão da colonialidade do ser como mobilizador de opressões estruturais de raça, gênero, sexualidade e classe, apontando de que modo a justiça criminal e o sistema penitenciário, no decurso da história, são dispositivos centrais na perpetuação de violência sob os corpos e subjetividades daqueles e daquelas que foram binarizadas e racializadas de modo a serem subalternizadas e subalternizados em relação ao sujeito que trouxe para si os caracteres tidos como hegemônico impostos pela masculinidade, racismo e cisheteronormatividade. A partir dessas lentes, é feita uma releitura das decisões proferidas no sistema interamericano de direitos humanos para casos que versem sobre prisões no Brasil no período entre 1988 e 2018, para compreender os limites e potencias do litígio estratégico para a luta antipunitiva. Por fim, para entender o posicionamento dos diversos atores no combate ou reprodução da colonialidade racista de gênero no litígio, analisa-se todas as peças da Medida Provisória Pessoas Privadas de Liberdade no Complexo Curado vs. Brasil durante os anos de 2006 até 2014. / [en] This thesis, using decolonial authors, postcolonial and Afro-Diasporic thought, specially the thinkers of the south, seeks to understand the coloniality of being as a mobilizer of structural oppressions as race, gender, sexuality and class, pointing out how criminal justice and the penitentiary system, in the course of history, are central devices in the perpetuation of violence on the bodies and subjectivities of those who have been binarized and racialized in order to be subalternized in relation to the subject understood as hegemonic: male, white and hetenormative. Through these lenses, will be made a re-reading of the decisions pronounced by the inter-American human rights system on cases that deal with prisons in Brazil between 1988 and 2018, in order to understand the limits and potentials of strategic litigation for the anti-punitive struggle. Finally, in order to understand the position of the various actors in the combat or reproduction of the racist coloniality of gender in the litigation, we analyze all the pieces of the Provisional Measure Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Cured Complex. Brazil from 2006 to 2014.