Constitutional protection of socio-economic rights in Africa

Abstract

This chapter explores the protection of socio-economic rights in African constitutions. First, it notes the increasing recognition of socio-economic rights in African constitutions, in the wake of jurisprudential innovations by the Constitutional Court of South Africa and African Commission on Human and Peoples. Second, it notes the role these rights play in protecting individual dignity, promoting development and combating market-based forms of violence. Third and finally, it considers extent to which these commitments have been remained "paper tigers" or been realized in practice. In some African countries, it suggests, civil society is increasingly engaging with such provisions and trying to make them a reality; and this suggests that the shrinking political space in many parts of the African continent will affect the spaces for progress in ensuring the implementation of socio-economic rights.