For your final,
You will select an international human rights violation
you are interested in.
Find a good video that explains your selection and share the link for my viewing and complete a 1-2 page summary including everything indicated below.( For the video you can choose one please).
You will explore the human rights violation conducting a literature review ( select only 2 articles with the BCC Librarian)( the article I choose is attached below) , and then explore international human rights legislation (such as a UN human rights treaty or international humanitarian law under the websites I share below), related policy and the effect the policy has had on the human rights violation.
You will then explore the role of the human service professional in advocating for change based on all the readings you completed (review Macro-level).
(Consider visiting one of these websites: United Nations atwww.UN.org, Human Rights Watch atwww.hrw.org, the Institute for GlobalLabourand Human Rights atwww.globallabourrights.org/, Amnesty International atwww.amnesty.org).
You will prepare a 1-2 page writing final assignment summarizing findings, resources and sources.
You will have a cover page with an image that supports your topic (include your name, date, course name etc.)
NB: the subject I choose is :Forcibly evicting people from their homes (the right to adequate housing)
Page | 342 The right to adequate housing in the African regional human rights system: Convergence or divergence between the African Commission and South African approaches LILIAN CHENWI Associate Professor, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand 1 INTRODUCTION The right to adequate housing holds a central place within the international human rights system. It is an important basic human right, “of central importance for the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights”.1 Also, the right is linked to other rights, 1 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment 4, The right to adequate housing E/1992/23 (1991) paras 1 & 4. LAW DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT LAW DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT VOLUME 17 (2013) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ldd.v17i1.16 ISSN: 2077-4907 http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ldd.v17i1. RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING IN AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM Page | 343 such as, to non-discrimination, dignity, privacy, freedom of association, freedom of expression, social security, education, health, work, vote, and the right to an adequate standard of living, which are essential if the right to adequate housing is to be realised and maintained by all groups in society.2 The right to adequate housing therefore clearly expresses the principle of interdependency of rights, which “suggests that there is a mutually reinforcing dynamic between different categories of rights in the sense that the effective implementation of one category of rights can contribute to the effective implementation of other categories of rights and vice versa”.3 Though Quane’s exposition limits the dynamic to different categories of rights (that is, civil and political rights, on the one hand, and socio-economic rights, on the other), the concept should also be understood as suggesting a mutually reinforcing dynamic between various rights including those within one category (that is, there can be a mutually reinforcing dynamic between various civil and political rights or between various socio-economic rights).4 Scott defines interdependence in the sense of organic interdependence (“one right forms a part of another right and may therefore be incorporated into that latter right”) and related interdependence (“the rights in question are mutually reinforcing or mutually dependent, but distinct”). It should be emphasised that the interdependence of human rights can be in relation to the actual content of rights and not just with respect to “mutual reinforcement and equal importance” of rights.5 The right to adequate housing was first recognised, as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (UDHR).6 It has subsequently been codified in various human rights instruments at the United Nations (UN) and regional levels.7 Its recognition in African regional human rights instruments is considered below. 2 General Comment 4 (1991) at para 9; Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN-Habitat Fact Sheet 21/Rev.1 (2009) 9; World Health Organization Health Principles of Housing (1989) 1. 3 Quane H “A further dimension to the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights?: Recent developments concerning the rights of indigenous peoples” (2012) 25 Harvard Human Rights Journal 49 at 49. 4 Scott C “The interdependence and permeability of human rights norms: Towards a partial fusion of the international covenants on human rights” (1989) 27 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 769 at 779-786. 5 Quane (2012) at 51. 6 UDHR, s 25(1). 7 At the United Nations level, see, for example, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 (art 11), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (art 17(1)), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1965 (art 5(e)(iii)), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979 (art 14(2)(h), the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (art 27(3)), the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1952 (art 21), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families 1990 (art 43(1)(d)), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2008 (arts 2, 5(3), 9(1)(a), 22(1), 28(1) & 28(2)(d)). With regard to other regions, in the European human rights system, the European Social Charter of 1961 was revised in 1996 to include the right to housing (art 31; see also arts 16 & 19(4) on housing for families & migrant workers, respectively); in the Inter-American human rights system, though the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1988 (Protocol of San Salvador) is silent on this right, it however provides for the right of everyone to live in a healthy environment and to have access to basic public services (art 11(1)), which is relevant in the LAW, DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT/ VOL 17 (2013) Page | 344 This article considers the right to adequate housing in the African regional human rights system, with specific emphasis on its enforcement by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission). The discussion is restricted to its recognition, meaning and content; state obligations; and the interactions of the right to adequate housing with other rights in terms of the principle of interdependency of rights. The African Commission is, currently, the only quasi-judicial body at the African regional level that has engaged with the enforcement of this right. The discussion of the recognition of the right in the African system and the jurisprudence on it is done against the backdrop of South Africa’s approach to the protection and enforcement of this right, with the aim of identifying instances of convergence or divergence between the African Commission and South Africa’s approaches. South Africa is well-known for its comprehensive and progressive jurisprudence on socio-economic rights, and housing rights in particular. It is known for its progressive housing laws, jurisprudence, policies and programmes. It would be interesting to see if, despite this progressive jurisprudence, there are still some lessons that could be learned from the African Commission’s limited jurisprudence; or is it the other way round – that is, the African Commission drawing lessons from South Africa to enhance its limited jurisprudence on housing. It must be emphasised that this article does not aim to discuss the South African housing jurisprudence comprehensively. References are made to some aspects of the jurisprudence where relevant in order to highlight congruencies and divergences. 2 RECOGNITION, MEANING AND CONTENT 2.1 A right to adequate housing for all The main human rights treaties at the African regional level either explicitly recognise the right to adequate housing or are silent on it. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1981 (African Charter)8 provides for both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. This is in fact one of its unique features – that is, the recognition of both categories of rights on the same footing and the provision of the same enforcement mechanism for both.9 This approach is based on the recognition of the interdependency of rights, which is explicitly stated in the Preamble to the Charter - “that civil and political rights cannot be dissociated from economic, social and cultural rights in their conception as well as universality and that the satisfaction of economic, social and cultural rights is a guarantee for the enjoyment of civil and political rights”. enjoyment of the right to adequate housing. 8 OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982). 9 Chirwa DM “African regional human rights system: The promise of recent jurisprudence on social rights” in Langford M (ed) Social rights jurisprudence: Emerging trends in international and comparative Law (2008) 323 at 323; Viljoen F International human rights law in Africa (2007) at 236-237; Nwobike JC “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the demystification of second and third generation rights under the African Charter: Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) v. Nigeria” (2005) 1 African Journal of Legal Studies 129 at 140. RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING IN AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM Page | 345 Notwithstanding the recognition of the interdependency of rights, the African Charter is silent on the right to adequate housing. To fill this gap, the African Commission has creatively, in relation to the principle of interdependency of rights, interpreted other rights in the Charter to include a right to adequate housing. In Social and Economic Action Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights v Nigeria (SERAC case), the African Commission stated that: Although the right to housing or shelter is not explicitly provided for under the African Charter,