Caselaw Database - All Cases

ESCR-Net Caselaw Database: A database on domestic, regional and international decisions regarding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Court surveyed the constitutional and international legal frameworks that protect women HRDs as subjects of special protection derived from the vulnerability linked to their situation of displacement. Among other international and regional instruments protecting the rights to defend human rights, the Court discussed the Declaration of the Rights of Human Rights Defenders (1999) and Organization of American States (OAS) Resolution 1671 (1999).

The first two sections of this judgement served as an update on the status of sexual violence in the country since the 2008 Auto 092. The Court examined information on the ongoing sexual violence against women, including sexual slavery, and forced sex work being imposed on women, girls, adolescents and women with disabilities by armed actors, and surveyed the ongoing barriers to accessing justice and aid for displaced women. 

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) represented Mrs. Agnes Sithole, a seventy-two-year-old woman living in KwaZulu-Natal who married Gideon Sithole in 1972 out of community of property in terms of section 22(6) of the Black Administration Act 38 of 1927 (BAA) and the Commission for Gender Equality in a challenge to the Matrimonial Property Act of 1984. Between 1972 and 1985 Mrs. Sithole worked as a housewife and ran a home-based clothing business successfully to educate her children and assist the family household expenses. After the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Sithole deteriorated, Mr.

Mrs. Dobson was a community nurse employed by North Cumbria Integrated Care working two days a week. As a mother of three children, two of whom have disabilities, Mrs. Dobson relied on the ability to have a fixed work schedule. From 2008 to 2016 Mrs. Dobson maintained a 15-hour work week over a period of two fixed days without issue. In 2013 Mrs. Dobson’s employer first asked Mrs. Dobson to work the occasional weekend, but after explaining her family dynamic and work that she needed to complete at home the issue was dropped.

The Constitutional Court accumulated 19 cases involving women who, at the time of the events in question, were pregnant, lactating, or on maternity leave, and worked in various positions in the public sector governed by the Organic Law of Public Service (LOSEP). The Court addresses the violation of pregnant and lactating women’s rights and provides further protections by formally recognizing the right to care.

In 2003, seven-year-old Andrea was murdered by her father, who subsequently committed suicide, during a court-approved parental visitation. Andrea’s mother, Andrea González, had reported over forty-seven (47) instances of physical abuse to the police and sought restraining orders against him to protect herself and her daughter – but the father had refused to accept supervised visitations and a court of law eventually allowed for the unsupervised visits that led to the death of Andrea. After the murder, Ms.

Background: On December 11, 1998, an explosion occurred in a fireworks factory in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Brazil. The factory consisted of a set of tents located in paddocks with shared worktables. As a result of the explosion, 60 people died and six were injured. Among those who lost their lives were 59 women, 19 of whom were girls, and one boy. Among the survivors were three adult women, two boys and one girl. Four of the deceased women were pregnant; one of them was able to give birth before dying.

At the time of her death, the deceased, Maria Mahlangu, was a domestic worker in a private home in South Africa. Ms. Mahlangu’s daughter and grandchild were financially dependent upon her at the time of her death. Ms. Mahlangu’s daughter asked the Department of Labour for help in the form of compensation under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) or unemployment insurance benefits. The Department of Labour denied both because Ms.

Petitioners challenged the Ugandan Government’s failure to provide basic maternal health services in violation of (1) the right to health, (2) the right to life, and (3) the right of women, under the Constitution.

The Gumedes were married in 1968, before the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998, which entered into force on November 15, 2000. Section 7(1) of the Recognition Act provided that customary marriages entered into prior to the date of the commencement of the Act (old marriages) were governed by customary law, while section 7(2) provided that customary marriages entered into after the date of commencement of the Act (new marriages) were marriages in community of property. Ms. Gumede was directly affected by Section 7 after Mr.