‘We've moved away from disability as a health issue, it's a human rights issue’: reflecting on 10 years of the right to equality in South Africa

Abstract

The South African Constitution (no. 108, 1996) enshrines the rights of disabled people to equality – an almost unprecedented attainment achieved by disabled people. Ten years on this paper reflects on what this has meant for disabled people in South Africa. It uses secondary sources and draws on the work and research experience of the authors. Human rights are viewed as a bundle of interrelated, interdependent and mutually supporting civil and political, as well as socio‐economic, rights. A brief description of the context introduces the body of the paper. The paper demonstrates that legislative and administrative measures have been put in place to protect the rights of disabled people but these have yet to be experienced at the everyday level of social life. The scale of the inequality that still exists requires disabled people to move beyond the courts of law and to adopt a human rights approach. However, this approach will require reviving the successful strategies and the spirit of collective action that realised disabled people's constitutional right to equality.