Sunday, December 18, 2011

How South Africa's bill of rights helped HIV campaigners

5:24 AM | Posted by Free Game Zone | | Edit Post

Some politicians and academics opposed to the inclusion of economic and social rights in the law. However, democracy has extensive

Soon after, Thabo Mbeki, former South African president began his flirtation with AIDS dissidents in 2000, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was established to address the HIV crisis in the country and the government's reluctance to deal with it.

Although closely aligned with the ANC government, politically engaged, and the TAC has launched several legal challenges to force a change in attitude of the government and ultimately to ensure that all HIV-positive people who could not afford to be provided antiretroviral (ARV) by the State.

TAC campaigned strategically brilliant and cunning to mobilize public opinion, unions and other civil society groups behind his cause. Your trump card in this campaign was the section 27 (1) of the Constitution, which states that everyone has the right to access to health services, including reproductive health.

Like other economic and social rights contained in the Bill of Rights in South Africa - including the right of access to housing, adequate food and water and social security - the right to health is not absolute. It requires the state to take legislative and other measures, depending on available resources, to ensure the progressive realization of each right.

At the time of drafting the bill, some politicians and academics opposed to the inclusion of these rights, arguing that it would be possible for judges to enforce these requirements, need for policy decisions are best left to the democratically elected branches of government. However, given the differences in wealth - often based on race - caused by apartheid and the fact that many citizens lack access to basic services at the dawn of democracy, the authors believed that it is imperative to include not only civil and political rights in the constitution, but also the court of economic and social rights. Otherwise, the constitutional legitimacy of the company would be at risk.

Constitutional Court of South Africa at first with caution in the interpretation and enforcement of these rights, stating that it would be possible to interpret the rights in a way that applicants individual always entitled to a specific demand for goods and services of the state.

The court was in a difficult position of having to respect the separation of powers doctrine and the government could not dictate how to allocate budgets. At the same time is necessary to ensure that social and economic rights was not only the role of rights, but it is interpreted in a manner that has marked its applicability.
The court made the observation that the social and economic rights imposed on both the negative obligation of the State not to interfere with the enjoyment of existing rights, for example, expel someone your home or prohibition of a medical prescription drugs available and suitable, and the positive obligation to take reasonable steps to provide more people with better access to social goods and services. Measures would not be reasonable, the court said, if you discriminate against a specific group or if not to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of society.


Find best price for : --South--

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive

Blogger Template created with Artisteer.