Exploring The Link Between Poverty And Human Rights In Africa

About the publication This book addresses poverty, one of the important issues confronting Africa, from a multi-disciplinary approach. With contributions from eminent scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book explores poverty from a human rights perspective. Its central message is that poverty is not necessarily a failure on the part of an individual, but rather caused by the actions or inactions of governments, which are often exacerbated by structural inequalities in many African societies. This in turn requires a more pragmatic approach grounded in respect for human rights. Exploring the link between poverty and human rights in Africa will be useful to researchers, policymakers, students, activists and others interested in addressing poverty. Table of Contents PREFACE viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x CONTRIBUTORS xi 1. General introduction to poverty and human rights in Africa Ebenezer Durojaye & Gladys Mirugi-Mukundi 1 Introduction 2 Understanding poverty 3 Nexus between poverty and human rights 4 Significance of this book 4.1 The relevance 5 Overview of the book 5.1 Section I: Trends and incidence of poverty in Africa 5.2 Section II: Poverty and socio-economic rights 5.3 Section III: Poverty and vulnerable groups 5.4 Section IV: Poverty and access to justice 2. Integrating a human rights approach to food security in national plans and budgets: The South African National Development Plan Julian May 1 Introduction 2 Human rights and food security 3 Development planning and human rights 4 The components of budgeting for human rights 4.1 Diagnostic analysis 4.2 Identifying interventions and budget prioritisation 4.3 Estimating the financial costs of achieving food security 4.5 Estimating social and economic benefits 5 Public expenditure management for food security 5.1 Fiscal and monetary policy 5.2 Multi-year budgeting 6 Conclusion 3. Is South Africa winning the war on poverty and inequality? What do the available statistics tell us? Emmanuel Sekyere, Steven Gordon, Gary Pienaar & Narnia Bohler-Muller 1 Introduction 1.1 Income inequality in South Africa 2 Poverty and human development trends in South Africa 2.1 South African Social Attitudes Survey: Perceptions of poverty 2.2 Human development 3 Access to services 4 Addressing social inequality in South Africa 4.1 Addressing income inequality in South Africa 4.2 Addressing human development challenges 4.3 Addressing service delivery 5 Conclusion and summary of findings 4. Who really ‘state-captured’ South Africa? Revealing silences in poverty, inequality and structurally-corrupt capitalism Patrick Bond 1 Introduction 2 Inequality, the state and its ‘capture’ 3 The political economy of the capitalist state 4 World Bank inequality denialism 5 The fight between hostile brothers: The ‘Zuptas’ and ‘White Monopoly Capital’ 6 Social resistances 5. Poverty, women and the human right to water for growing food Ngcimezile Mbano-Mweso 1 Introduction 2 The human right to water 2.1 Recognition in international law 2.2 Definition and content: Is there a right to water for growing food? 2.3 Normative content of the human right to water for growing food 3 Conclusion 6. The link between environmental pollution and poverty in Africa Olubayo Oluduro 1 Introduction 2 Legal framework for the protection of the environment in Africa 3 Nature of environmental pollution in Africa 3.1 Environmental pollution in Africa: Case studies of some countries 4 Nexus between pollution and poverty 4.1 Environmental pollution leads to diversion of labour 4.2 Increased burden of disease in poor countries 4.3 Problem of food security 4.4 Right to safe drinking water 5 Protecting the environment to fight poverty and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 6 Recommendations 6.1 Political commitment 6.2 Promotion of education and information sharing 6.3 Eliminating poverty 7 Conclusion 138 7. Alleviating poverty through retirement reforms Kitty Malherbe 1 Introduction 2 Poverty among older persons 3 Current social security provision for older persons 4 Arguments for the reform of the current retirement income system 5 Proposed retirement reforms 5.1 Comprehensive social security and retirement reform process 5.2 Reforms proposed by National Treasury 6 Constitutional principles guiding reforms 6.1 Coordinated approach 6.2 Inclusivity 6.3 Progressive realisation 6.4 Governance and accountability 6.5 Availability of resources 6.6 ‘Lifespan’ view to addressing poverty 7 Potential impact of social security and retirement income reforms 8. Disability, poverty and human rights in Africa: Opportunities for poverty reduction from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Enoch M Chilemba 1 Introduction 2 Poverty, disability and human rights link in Africa 2.1 Persons with disabilities in Africa: Among the poorest of the poor 2.2 Poverty, disability and human rights linkage 3 Utilising the opportunities from CRPD in countering obstacles relating to disability and poverty in Africa 3.1 Fostering equality and non-discrimination to reduce poverty 3.2 Fostering inclusive education to eradicate poverty 3.3 Enhancing employment in the open labour market to eradicate poverty 3.4 Ensuring social protection to reduce poverty 4 Conclusion 188 9.The co-existence of gender inequality and poverty Nomthandazo Ntlama 1 Introduction 2 SADC’s transformative vision in eliminating gender inequalities and poverty 2.1 Reducing poverty and eliminating gender inequality: A mammoth task 2.2 Towards a transformative region: Advancing the principles of the community of nations 3 Conclusion 10. The potential of the African human rights system in addressing poverty Bright Nkrumah 1 Introduction 2 Norm creation and norm enforcement: Issues and implications 2.1 Normative framework for addressing poverty 2.2 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 2.3 Little angels: African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 2.4 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa 3 Other instruments relating to poverty 3.1 AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (Anti-Corruption Convention) 3.2 Declaration on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa 3.4 Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme 4 Institutional frameworks for addressing poverty 4.1 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 4.2 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 4.3 African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights 4.4 Need for complementarity: The road not taken 5 Other related mechanisms 5.1 New Partnership for Africa’s Development 5.2 African Peer Review Mechanism 6 International best practice dealing with poverty 7 Concluding reflections 11. Realising access to justice for the poor: Lessons from working with rural communities Victoria Balogun 1 Introduction 2 What is access to justice for the poor? 3 How are non-profit organisations such as the Centre for Community Justice and Development promoting access to justice in South Africa post-1994? 4 Are there any barriers to access to justice and do they have any implication(s) for the poor in poor communities? 5 The intersection between poverty and access to justice for poor communities 6 Access to justice, the role of legal aid offices and the commitment to serve the poor in poor communities 7 Equality and access to justice for the poor 8 Conclusion 12. The role of the South African Human Rights Commission in ensuring state accountability to address poverty Rachael Adams 1 Introduction 2 Poverty and human rights 2.1 International human rights law 2.2 Poverty and human rights in South Africa 2.3 Socio-economic rights 3 What do we mean by state accountability? 3.1 State accountability 4 South African Human Rights Commission 4.1 Mandate and functions 4.2 Reporting requirements 5 Structures of accountability 5.1 Complaints 5.2 Reporting 6 Inequality and intersectional discrimination 6.1 Interdependence of rights and the role of government 7 Conclusion: The role of the South African Human Rights Commission

This book addresses poverty, one of the important issues confronting Africa, from a multi-disciplinary approach. With contributions from eminent scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book explores poverty from a human rights perspective. Its central message is that poverty is not necessarily a failure on the part of an individual, but rather caused by the actions or inactions of governments, which are often exacerbated by structural inequalities in many African societies. This in turn requires a more pragmatic approach grounded in respect for human rights."

This important Research Handbook explores the nexus between human rights, poverty and inequality as a critical lens for understanding and addressing key challenges of the coming decades, including the objectives set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. The Research Handbook starts from the premise that poverty is not solely an issue of minimum income and explores the profound ways that deprivation and distributive inequality of power and capability relate to economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.

The collection of chapters contained in this book originates from the first Raoul Wallenberg Institute Regional Africa Academic Network Conference held at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe in October 2022. The main aim of this book is to advance an understanding of the way Africa regional and sub-regional human rights systems contribute to access to justice on the continent and to generate further knowledge about the institutions that make up the African human rights adjudication system, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and sub-regional courts, such as the Economic Community of West African States Community Court of Justice.

In 2015, the United Nations established seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that aimed 'to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all' by 2030. The chapters within this collection address each of these SDGs, considering how they relate to one another and international law, and what institutions could aid their implementation. Development has been a contentious topic since the decolonization period after World War II, and issues surrounding sustainable development are necessarily impacted by the multifaceted relationship between the Global South and Global North. Confronting the context and challenge of sustainable development, this collection outlines how the international economic system problematizes the attainment of the SDGs. Introducing a novel, cosmopolitan approach, this book offers new ways of understanding sustainable development and suggests potential solutions so that we might finally achieve it.

This book examines the socio-economic rights challenges of refugees and asylum seekers in Africa. It seeks to fill a major gap in the literature by providing a nuanced discussion of the barriers to the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Africa. It equally aims to provide some concrete recommendations to African governments towards the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers. With the aid of lessons from selected African countries, this book highlights the gaps, challenges and good practices regarding the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the region. The book will be useful to researchers, students, academicians, policymakers, and international organisations or institutions interested in advancing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

This book explores the resilience of constitutional government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting and comparing perspectives from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa to global trends. In emergency situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a state has the right and duty under both international law and domestic constitutional law to take appropriate steps to protect the health and security of its population. Emergency regimes may allow for the suspension or limitation of normal constitutional government and even human rights. Those measures are not a license for authoritarian rule, but they must conform to legal standards of necessity, reasonableness, and proportionality that limit state action in ways appropriate to the maintenance of the rule of law in the context of a public health emergency. Bringing together established and emerging African scholars from ten countries, this book looks at the impact government emergency responses to the pandemic have on the functions of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, as well as the protection of human rights. It also considers whether and to what extent government emergency responses were consistent with international human rights law, in particular with the standards of legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination in the Siracusa Principles.

This Handbook provides an authoritative and foundational disciplinary overview of African Public Policy and a comprehensive examination of the practicalities of policy analysis, policymaking processes, implementation, and administration in Africa today. The book assembles a multidisciplinary team of distinguished and upcoming Africanist scholars, practitioners, researchers and policy experts working inside and outside Africa to analyse the historical and emerging policy issues in 21st-century Africa. While mostly attentive to comparative public policy in Africa, this book attempts to address some of the following pertinent questions: How can public policy be understood and taught in Africa? How does policymaking occur in unstable political contexts, or in states under pressure? Has the democratisation of governing systems improved policy processes in Africa? How have recent transformations, such as technological proliferation in Africa, impacted public policy processes? What are the underlying challenges and potential policy paths for Africa going forward? The contributions examine an interplay of prevailing institutional, political, structural challenges and opportunities for policy effectiveness to discern striking commonalities and trajectories across different African states. This is a valuable resource for practitioners, politicians, researchers, university students, and academics interested in studying and understanding how African countries are governed.