Caselaw Database - All Cases

ESCR-Net Caselaw Database: A database on domestic, regional and international decisions regarding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In February 1990, the Executive Branch commissioned the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) to develop a food security program designed to help the poor maintain small vegetable gardens to produce food for their own consumption. On August 3, 1990, the INTA Board of Directors issued Resolution 239 approving the Pro-Huerta Program.

The plaintiff filed an injunction aimed at guaranteeing the right of a 12 year-old girl to her mental health, among other rights. The girl became pregnant in early 2011 and started presenting symptoms of anxiety and depression, as diagnosed by different physicians, who recommended the interruption of her pregnancy.

Alyne Pimentel, an Afro-Brazilian woman, died at 28 years old of complications resulting from her pregnancy, after a health center in Rio de Janeiro failed to provide for appropriate and timely access to emergency obstetric care. Pimentel's death could have been prevented, if the health center had correctly diagnosed and treated her for intrauterine fetal death. Pimentel's death is not an isolated case.

In 1985 De Beers mining company drilled a borehole for prospecting purposes and some of the water was supplied to settlements in CKGR. The Government later evicted and resettled the Basarwa outside of the CKGR because they felt that human settlements were incompatible with the conservation of wildlife in the preserve. In an attempt to dissuade the Basarwa from returning, the borehole was also dismantled as it was the only source of water within 40km. In 2006, in the Sesana case, the Court found that this eviction was unconstitutional and allowed the Basarwa to return to the CKGR.

Under the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act ("Leadership Act"), U.S. based organizations receiving funding for life-saving HIV prevention work abroad were required to pledge their opposition to prostitution.  Furthermore, on 23 July 2007, USAID and the U.S.

Complainant is hearing impaired and had completed the first semester in the Primary School Teacher's College at Montería, but was not able to continue on past the first year because based on the applicable law (paragraph 3, Art 9 of Decree 366/2009) established that a minimum presence of 10 students with hearing disabilities was necessary to require sign language interpreters in educational institutions.

The mother of an intellectually disabled girl initiated a tutela action because her daughter had been diagnosed with cognitive deficit and microcephaly, and she could not afford the recommended integrated program of therapy and special education. The Constitutional Court accepted to review the case and ordered EPS Coomeva to coordinate with local education agencies to obtain a comprehensive medical assessment of the minor, as well as to determine the medical and educational services required for her disability.

The applicant is a body that represents over 150 member organizations that provide care for children living in the Western Cape who have severe and profound intellectual disabilities. In the Western Cape, the only available education for children who are severely and profoundly intellectually disabled occurs at "Special Care Centers" operated by non-governmental organizations. There are an insufficient number of such Special Care Centers and the children who are not able to obtain care at these centers receive no care at all.

This case was brought as an abstract review[1] by the Abahlali BaseMjondolo Movement (Abahlali), a voluntary association which acts in the interests of several thousand people living in informal dwellings in South Africa. Abahlali argued that section 16 of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act ("the Slums Act"), which authorized provincial government officials to issue a notice directing that eviction proceedings be instituted by owners and local municipalities against informal settlements, was unconstitutional.

The case was brought by two women who had borrowed minimal sums of money (about 27 and 35 US dollars respectively), had been charged significant interest and fell behind on their payments. This led to the sale and execution of their houses. The applicants argued that legislation permitting the sale in execution of people's homes due to non-payment of trifling debts removed their security of tenure and violated their right to access to adequate housing recognized in section 26 of the Constitution. The law in question was sections 66(1)(a) and 67 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 32 of 1944.