Judicia implementation of socio-economic rights in Africa

Ensuring dignity of the human person commands addressing rights concerns of humans in civil, political, social, economic and cultural spheres of lives. Such a holistic approach to human rights has long been acknowledged since 1948, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is adopted; and subsequently been echoed in various international and regional human rights instruments. After decades have passed since the relevant international and regional human rights instruments are adopted, millions of people in developing countries, particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa, still lack access to basic necessities of life. Indeed, resource constraint can be a challenge for African states in realizing fully socio-economic rights of all persons under their jurisdiction. At the same time, however, it is shown that low level of accountability in policy making and prioritizing on the part of many governments in Africa have negatively affected the effort to alleviate the situation of millions of Africans in dreadful socio-economic conditions. Socio-economic rights could mean little for those who benefit from the rights most if rights violations are not redressed by appropriate remedies. In this regard, the judiciary can play an important role to play in terms of enhancing accountability of political organs towards the poor, and ultimately in ensuring dignity for all. v However, as the theory and practise of human rights places little attention to socio-economic rights, judicial implementation of these rights is not as easy as that of civil and political rights. Consequently, it is claimed that socio-economic rights have no judicially manageable standards. Moreover, it is argued that judicial enforcement of the socio-economic rights will go against constitutionalism, particularly the principle of separation of powers. Accordingly, many states in Africa perceive these rights as non-justiciable rights. Such perception, of course, precludes the judiciary’s role in implementing the rights. This thesis paper argues that, with due care to the concern of constitutionalism- obviously an important matter to African states- socio-economic rights can and should be judicially enforced. First, the thesis paper tries to demonstrate the availability of judicially manageable socio-economic rights standards good enough to guide African states implement the rights through judicial means. To this end, the thesis paper primarily uses socio-economic rights standards established by the African Regional Human Rights System. Moreover, it will show the prospect and actual implementation of the rights in two African countries, namely South Africa and Ethiopia. In this regard, factors affecting judicial implementation of the rights as well as the performance of judicial bodies in the two countries will be examined.