Latest resources

The Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill

This submission was made to the National Department of Housing, South Africa on 2 February 2007.

Child Justice in South Africa: Children’s rights under construction (Conference Report)

The Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA) and the Child Justice Alliance, which the Children’s Rights Project co-ordinate, convened a conference entitled “Child Justice in South Africa: Children’s rights under construction”. The purpose of the conference was to take stock of the situation relating to the criminal justice system for children in conflict with the law.

ESR Review Volume 7 No 4 - December 2006

This is the fourth and last issue of the ESR Review for 2006. This issue contains interesting articles on social assistance, housing rights and investment and human rights.

Provincial intergovernmental forums: A post– Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act compliance assessment

This 2006 study, conducted a year after the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act of 2005 (IRFA) came into operation, evaluates the extent to which provinces complied with the Act and what progress had been made in pursuing the goals of the IRFA.

Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution in Focus: The Cape Storm

In 2006, the Democratic Alliance took control of the City of Cape Town after winning the election and putting together an unlikely coalition. Shortly thereafter, the ANC-led provincial government announced its intention to change the City's governance structure from an executive mayor system to an executive committee system. This would have forced the City to adopt an executive inclusive of the ANC. This sparked an intergovernmental dispute, the details of which are discussed in this paper.

Enforcing the Code of Conduct for Councillors

This 2006 paper discusses the Code of Conduct for Councillors, which was adopted as part of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000. The paper analyses how the Code of Conduct can be enforced and sets out the role of the speaker, council and the MEC for local government. It also presents a case study of an instance in which these instruments to enforce ethical conduct were invoked. Lastly, it proposes a way forward to improving the enforcement of the Code of Conduct.

Accessing housing in the Western Cape: A guide for women vulnerable to gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS, and for organisations providing services to them

The guide is part of a joint project between the Community Law Centre (Socio-Economic Rights Project and Gender Project) and the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children on reducing women and girls' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS by ensuring their property and inheritance rights. This joint project aims, especially, to improve women's access to adequate housing to make them less vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV/AIDS. The project is supported by the International Centre for Research on Women, through financial support from UNAIDS. Written in plain language and user-friendly format, the guide aims to inform and educate its readers on the different housing allocation policies in the Western Cape Province. As the title indicates, it is targeted at women vulnerable to gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS as well as organisations providing services to them, and contains topic-specific examples illustrating the basic principles.

Status quo report on intergovernmental relations regarding local government

This 2006 report discusses the state of intergovernmental relations with a focus on IGR within provinces, i.e. provincial-local IGR. It assesses compliance with the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act 13 of 20015 by looking at both procedural and substantive compliance, examines district-local IGR and presents a number of developments in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime: Situation Analysis and Pilot Design

This study records the results of a situation analysis and baseline study to explore the use of children by adults and older children in the commission of crimes, which has been identified as a worst form of child labour. It builds on South Africa’s commitment to address child labour, as evidenced in the constitutional protection accorded to this group of children, as well as early ratification by the South African government of ILO Convention 182 concerning the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. The implementation of ILO Convention 182 is marked by the need for the design and implementation of targeted measures to address the situation of children involved in the worst forms of child labour. This study constitutes the first step in the process of achieving that goal.

Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime: Guidelines for Role-players in the Criminal Justice System

This publication consists of background documents that are needed for the role-players. These documents are: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; International Labour Organisation: Convention 182; United Nations General Assembly; The South African Constitution; and The Children’s Bill. Guidelines in the Criminal Justice system are specified for the following role-players: the Police; Probation Officers; Prosecutors; Magistrates; Diversion service providers and Child care workers; Legal Representatives for the child and Educators.

Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime: Diversion Programme Manual

This manual contains an intervention designed for a specific group of child offenders that is meant to supplement existing diversion programmes. The research undertaken with children has shown that adults often use a reward system to elicit the participation of children in crime. This intervention has been designed to provide alternatives and behavioral means for children to avoid them succumbing to such influences and committing offences. This diversion intervention represents a valuable effort to expand the programmatic responses to offending that are available in South African, in order for specific groups of children in trouble with the law.

Second Provincial Seminars in the Western Cape and Gauteng, November 2006

The seminars were held in order for provincial stakeholders to explore ways in which they could integrate the CUBAC project within existing policy and practice and to indicate what it is they would require to sustain the project.

Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime: Children's Perceptions of their Use by Adults in the Commission of Offences

This publication contains the study aimed at consulting with children on the nature, extent and consequences of Child Used by Adults in the Commission of Crime (CUBAC). It presents the central findings of the study, followed by the discussion of the key issues emerging from them, and the identification of risk factors suggested by them.

Monitoring the financial resource flow for the implementation of the Child Justice Bill as costed

During its development the Child Justice Bill underwent a cost-effectiveness analysis (see Barberton et al 1999 and Barberton 2001). The analysis compared the cost of the current system to the management of children through the different stages of the proposed Bill. In costing the Bill, Barberton (1999) provided three scenarios which described different levels of implementation of the Bill. Overall, the analysis showed that government as a whole would benefit from substantial savings when the Bill is fully implemented, although the Department of Justice and the South African Police Service (SAPS) would spend additional funds to what they are currently spending. The summary to follow is sourced from Department of Justice and Constitutional Development et al (2002).

Child Justice Alliance Court Monitoring Project - Phase One

This research report constitutes an attempt at obtaining baseline data on the present criminal justice system as it pertains to children in three magisterial districts, namely, Wynberg in the Western Cape, Pretoria in Gauteng and Pietermaritzburg in Kwa Zulu-Natal. It is intended to form the basis of on-going monitoring research that will examine the implementation of the Child Justice Act, once enacted, in that it represents the first phase of a larger monitoring study.

First Provincial Seminars in the Western Cape and Gauteng, August 2006

The seminars were held in order for provincial and local stakeholders to reflect on what had happened since the beginning of the implementation of the pilot projects in Mamelodi, Sunnyside, Hatfield and Mitchell’s Plain.

Water delivery: public or private?

This edited volume contains a collection of papers dealing with the realisation of the right of access to water in South Africa and the Netherlands. The papers were presented at a Colloquium held at Utrecht University in 2005. Bas de Gaay Fortmann presents an international human rights framework for safe water. Jaap de Visser compares water delivery in South Africa and the Netherlands. Christopher Mbazira examines the privatisation and commodification of water delivery in South Africa. Victoria Johnson discusses the complexities of outsourcing basis services in South Africa. Tobias Schmitz analyses the establishment of Johannesburg Water and Bert Raven (et al) present a case study of the implementation of the South African Water Act.

The Promotion and Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights & Other African and International Human Rights Instruments

This submission was made to the Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Democracy and Good Political Governance - Africa Peer Review Mechanism Process - South Africa on 2 December 2005.