The Rights to Work and Health in The Sudan
Nature of the Case Upon consideration of a communication submitted before it, the African Commission held that in its persecution of human rights defenders, the government of Sudan violated several provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, including the rights to work and health. Summary In...
Read MoreWomen’s Right to Maternal Health Services in Uganda
Nature of the Case Four petitioners—including the Center for Health, Human Rights & Development (CEHURD) and two family members of women who died during childbirth—appeal the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of their petition in which they alleged that the government violated the Constitution by failing to provide basic maternal health...
Read MoreThe Right to Affordable Care in the United States of America
Nature of the Case This case came before the Supreme Court on appeal, and constitutes a challenge to one aspect of the Affordable Care Act, specifically regarding whether subsidies can be provided to low-income people buying health insurance through federal exchanges. These subsidies are vital in enabling people to...
Read MoreWomen’s Property and Inheritance Rights in Tanzania
Nature of the Case In views adopted under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women held the United Republic of Tanzania accountable for multiple violations of women’s rights, particularly as relates to...
Read MoreThe Right to Sound Education in the City of New York
Nature of the Case Challenge against state school funding system on the basis of the Education Article of the New York Constitution (Article XI § 1). The case addressed a range of issues including, the constitutional right to a sound basic education, adequacy of school funding, budgetary allocations, and...
Read MoreRight to Adequate Housing in Peru
Nature of the Case Constitutional remedy filed against a lower court decision of March 21, 2013 (resolución de fojas 394, Sala Especializada Civil de la Corte Superior de Justicia de Cajamarca), which dismissed a complaint by a citizen of Cajamarca against the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and Minera...
Read MoreChildren’s welfare in Senegal
This case addresses the plight of as many as 100,000 children (known as talibés), who while attending Qur’anicschools (daaras) in Senegal, are forced by some instructors to beg in the streets, to secure their own survival and enrich the teachers. The children live away from their families, often in...
Read MoreWomen and children’s social and economic rights (including health) in Uganda
Nature of the Case The case was brought on behalf of a pregnant woman who died in a hospital while awaiting obstetric care. It considers whether the hospital failed to provide appropriate obstetric care and management, thereby violating her rights as well as those of her surviving children. Summary...
Read MoreGuiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
These Principles are the first global policy guidelines focused specifically on the human rights of people living in poverty. They are intended for use by governments to ensure that public policies, including poverty eradication efforts, reach the poorest members of society, respect and uphold their rights, and take into account...
Read MoreMeasures to ensure equality of treatment of migrant workers in case of work-related accident in Thailand
In previous observations on the application of the Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention, No 19, the Committee of Experts had expressed deep concerns over the situation of more than 2 million migrants working in Thailand. In response to these concerns, the Thai Government argued that the Workmen’s Compensation...
Read MoreAdoption of principles of collective financing and social solidarity in Bolivia
In 2010 Bolivia adopted a new constitution that established a new hierarchy of legal standards by giving precedence of international instruments ratified by state over national laws. In the spirit of harmonizing existing law to the new Constitution, the State and the Bolivian Workers’ Federation (COB) signed a framework...
Read MoreThe privatization of the pension system in Chile
In 1980 Chile reformed its pension system leading to the privatization of the pensions. This reform gave rise to several representation procedures before the Governing Body under article 24 of the ILO Constitution between 1986 and 2001. The Governing Body concluded that Chile’s pension reform did not comply with...
Read MoreAusterity measures that contravene Conventions by reducing social protection and increasing poverty
In its general report of 2009, the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) observed that the global financial crisis was posing a real threat to the financial viability and sustainable development of social security systems and undermining the application of ILO social security standards....
Read MoreEqual access to health and family planning information for all women in Hungary
The communication was filed with regards to the alleged forced sterilization of an ethnic Roma woman by medical staff pursuant to an emergency caesarian section that was required to remove a deceased fetus. The Committee found that previous medical care, the poor medical condition of the victim, A.S., upon...
Read MoreAccess to abortion for poor, disabled woman amid conscientious objection in Argentina
Summary: The communication was filed by the mother of a woman with a mental impairment amounting to a legal age of a child, concerning the response of public health and judicial institutions to her pregnancy resulting from rape. After being refused by one hospital, a second hospital scheduled an...
Read MoreDuty to prevent discrimination by private health providers on grounds of gender, race or economic status in Brazil
The communication represented the first instance of maternal mortality to be addressed by the international system of human rights, and examined accountability of health provision, in relation to compounding forms of discrimination. The victim was a poor woman of Afro-Brazilian ethnicity. The ethnic, socio-economic and gender factors were widely...
Read MoreAusterity measures that contravene Conventions by reducing social protection and increasing poverty in Greece
Recalling previous recommendations, the Committee observed that the austerity measures in conjunction with the continuous contractions of the economy, employment and public finances posed a threat to the viability of the Greek national social security system, resulting in the impoverishment of the population, thus undermining the application of all...
Read MoreApplication of international provisions concerning maternal health in the Netherlands
In force until 1996, Article 3(a) of “Besluit ziekenhuisverpleging ziekenfondsverzekering” (Decree on health insurance and hospital care) required personal contributions from women towards the cost of postnatal care. Moreover, according to the explanatory note (“toelichting”) accompanying this Decree, personal contributions would also include postnatal care in hospitals regardless of...
Read MoreReduction of pensions for condemned prisoners in Azerbaijan
The Court was requested to examine whether Article 109 para. 1 of the Law of Azerbaijan Republic On Pension Maintenance of Citizens, allowing an 80 per cent reduction of pensions for entitled persons who are incarcerated, was inconsistent with the right to social protection, contained in Article 38 of...
Read MoreCoherent Constitutions and the Right to Social Protection for Adopted Children in Taiwan
The Judicial Yuan, a body responsible for interpreting the Constitution, examined the constitutionality of provisions in the Statute for Labor Insurance preventing children adopted within less than six months of the death of their adoptive parents from collecting social insurance benefits as survivors. The Court held that despite the...
Read MoreUnfair dismissal during protected maternity period in Benin
Consequences of childbirth led to a medical condition that would temporarily prevent rigorous physical activities, and subsequently have implications for the complainant’s work duties upon returning to Plan International Benin after maternity leave, due to the necessity of daily motorcycle travel. During extended maternity leave, she was dismissed on...
Read MoreRelevance of contractual terms to protections for employed women who are pregnant or breastfeeding in Colombia
This case addressed the circumstances of thirty-three women who had been dismissed from various forms of employment on the basis of being pregnant. Article 53 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Colombia allows for the direct application of international law by domestic legal bodies. Ratified conventions and...
Read MoreAccess to courts and the right to work for informal traders in South Africa
Upon an urgent request, the Constitutional Court of South Africa intervened in a lower court affair to prevent the municipal government and Metropolitan Police Force from hindering what was asserted to be lawful activity by informal traders under the auspices of “Operation Clean Sweep”. Until the legality of the...
Read MoreDiscriminatory, cruel and unusual treatment of refugees for provision of healthcare in Canada
The Federal Court reviewed the effects of changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) in relation to sections 7, 12 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, pertaining to the right to life, liberty and the security of the person, the prohibition of cruel and...
Read MoreProtection of Non-nationals without Discrimination in France
Summary Ibrahim Gueye and 742 other retired Senegalese members of the French Army submitted this case before the Human Rights Committee alleging racial discrimination in French legislation. The petitioners contended that the French law accorded different treatment to those retired army men of Senegalese nationality who served in the...
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