Text in Afrikaans / The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly on 29 November 1989. Included in the inherent rights set
out in the Convention is the right to the highest attainable standard of health.
In implementing the Convention states parties must refer to the requirements
of article 2 of the Convention, which places them under a duty to respect and
ensure the rights in the Convention to each child. The term “respect” implies a
duty of good faith to refrain from actions which would breach the Convention.
The “duty to ensure”, however, requires states parties to take whatever
measures are necessary in order to enable children to enjoy their rights. A
state party must also review its legislation in order to ensure that domestic law
is consistent with the Convention.
South Africa showed commitment to protecting and promoting children’s
health when it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child in 1995 and subsequently adopted the Constitution of the Republic of
South Africa, 1996, which includes provisions guaranteeing the health rights
of children. South Africa also showed commitment to give legislative effect to
the protection and promotion of children’s health by reviewing the Health Act
63 of 1977 (reviewed as the National Health Act 61 of 2003) and the Child
Care Act 74 of 1983 (reviewed as the Children’s Act 38 of 2005).
The review of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 revealed that the act is virtually
silent on the issue of child health. This led to the decision to identify and
evaluate existing policy and legislation, as well as pending relevant law reform
and policy affecting child health in order to assess how well South African
legislation addresses the issue. The research showed that although much
legislation exists, none provides comprehensively for child health rights. The
legislation that does exist contains obvious gaps. Most importantly, there is no
reference to the core minimum requirements for the state in providing for the
health of children, particularly in the way of health services and nutrition.
Further, there is a complete lack of legislation which protects the health needs
of disabled children.
A comparative study was also undertaken. Legislation of India and Canada
were evaluated in order to make recommendations as to how the gaps in
South African legislation can be rectified. However, the research showed that
South Africa has made far more significant progress in promoting a rightsbased
approach to children’s health in legislation. In order to ensure that the
health rights of children are protected and promoted, I propose more
comprehensive legislative protection. / Private Law / LL.D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/3453 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Buchner-Eveleigh, Mariana |
| Contributors | Kruger, J. M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xi, 440 leaves) |
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