Unfair 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 MorePoverty and Prohibited Grounds for Discrimination in Canada
Summary: A black single mother with two children and relying on social assistance and public housing was given one month’s notice that she would be evicted from her home with no reason given. In Canada public housing was exempted from the security of tenure provisions of the Residential Tenancies...
Read MoreGuaranteeing life-saving drugs to patients with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela
Summary: The case was brought before the Supreme Court of Venezuela by a group of persons living with HIV, requesting the Instituto Venezolano de Seguros Sociales (Venezuelan Institute for Social Security, IVSS) to ensure the supply of drugs needed to treat diseases arising from AIDS and cover the expenses...
Read MoreAccess to social welfare benefits for non-citizens in Switzerland
Summary: The case involved three brothers, originally from what was previously Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), who were denied access to social welfare benefits in Switzerland on account of being illegal residents . The brothers had been living in Switzerland since 1980, but were expelled to Czechoslovakia in 1987...
Read MoreCombining constitutional and international standards for social protection resource mobilization in Latvia
Summary: In 2000, twenty Latvian parliamentarians complained to Latvia’s Constitutional Court that certain employers within Latvia were not paying social insurance premiums into a fund for their employees, and that this was a breach of the human right to social security as per Latvia’s constitution as well as Articles...
Read MoreProvision of social security for permanent residents in South Africa
Summary: The case was brought before the Constitutional Court of South Africa by Mozambican citizens living in South Africa as permanent residents. The applicants challenged the validity of certain provisions of the Social Assistance Act 59 of 1992 that denied social assistance to foreign nationals. They cited the infringement...
Read MoreSocial security for asylum seekers in the United Kingdom
Summary: In this case, the House of Lords listened to appeals by the Secretary of State for Home Department, who denied state support to destitute asylum applicants (“applicants”) on the grounds of not having applied for asylum “as soon as reasonably practicable”. The applicants cited a violation of Article...
Read MoreEnsuring mechanisms that protect the right to life against the risk of famine in India
Summary: In 2001 the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties claimed that that recent starvation deaths that occurred in the Indian State of Rajasthan were the result of the State’s failure to release grain stocks in fact kept as a guard against famine, and that this denial amounted to a...
Read MoreSpecial protection in pension programmes for women in South Africa
Summary: Four male applicants, above the age of 60 but below 65, mounted a constitutional challenge to Section 10 of South Africa’s Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 and the relevant Regulations, which set the age for accessing an old age grant at 60 for women and 65 for...
Read MoreIntegrating informal workers into market reform strategies in Colombia
Summary: Recycling activities in Colombia have traditionally been carried out by extremely poor and marginalized sectors of society. Materials are collected from landfills or the streets, transported and sold as recyclable material to intermediary informal warehouses for modest sums. However, over the course of the last decade, recycling became...
Read MoreEducational opportunities for persons with disabilities in Colombia
Summary: The case was brought before the Constitutional Court of Colombia by the mother of a girl who was diagnosed with cognitive deficit and microcephaly. She contended that the official combined programme of therapy and special education were unaffordable to her. The Court referred to Article 12 of the...
Read MoreProtecting pensions against austerity measures in Latvia
Summary: Latvian pensioners formed a petition and challenged the constitutionality of Latvia’s Law on State Pension and State Allowance Disbursement – commonly known as the ‘Disbursement Law’ – in the period from 2009 to 2012. The overall economy in Latvia was rapidly declining in 2009, and the Latvian Parliament,...
Read MoreAccess to information about beneficiaries to ensure social accountability of state decisions
Summary: CIPPEC (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento ) has been denied access to information concerning the beneficiaries of subsidies and social cash transfer programs in 2006 and 2007. The Supreme Court considered that accessing such data has a clear public interest, since it enables...
Read MoreForced evictions and violations of rights recognized by regional and international instruments in Kenya
Summary: The case was brought before the High Court of Kenya by Hakijamii, a human rights organisation in Nairobi, based on the request of over 1,000 individuals. They included women, children and older persons who reported having been evicted from their homes in Garissa municipality. The homes were built...
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