CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Ellaboudy, Ahmed |
|---|---|
| Title | From Rhetoric to Reality: Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights in Egypt, Colombia, and South Africa |
| Summary | The foundation of human rights is the notion that everyone should live in dignity, equality, and freedom. But when people cannot afford their basic needs of food, housing and healthcare, all other rights and freedoms can be compromised. Social and economic rights guarantee that everyone should live in conditions that cover all these basic needs. My main claim in this thesis is that the implementation of social and economic rights had been taken away from courts’ supervision for many years, for many reasons. Meanwhile, there are examples of some jurisdictions that opened the door for the judiciary to monitor and involve in the enforcement process of social and economic rights. For instance, the South African and Colombian models proved that there is a place for an effective role for the judiciary in the development of social welfare in a country. Therefore, studying the theoretical framework of the enforcement of socio-economic rights and analyzing the case-law of these two jurisdictions, in addition to observing the development of the Egyptian constitutional system regarding social and economic rights, were essential elements for this study. The first chapter of this thesis is composed of three sections. The first section observes the specific nature of the obligations that arising from socio-economic rights and the nature of these rights. The second section shows the classic concerns against the judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights, such as the argument of separation of powers and court’s competence and legitimacy to examine these matters. The third section illustrates the legal standing conditions before courts for a constitutional adjudication, within the compared jurisdictions. The second chapter presents the constitutional framework of social and economic rights in Egypt, South Africa, and Colombia. It shows the specific features of each constitution and the formulation of socio-economic provisions. Also, it analyses the role of constitutional courts in the three countries regarding the interpretation of socio-economic rights. 6 The third chapter of this dissertation studies housing adjudication as a case study for judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights. The first section addresses the background of housing problems and forced eviction operations in the three countries. The second section illustrates how the three constitutions grants the right to housing, and the states’ obligations to realize it. The third section presents an analysis of court’s conduct toward housing problems. The fourth section shows the competing interests between the right to housing from a side and property rights and states’ development plans from the other side and the reflection of these concerns in the comparative jurisprudence. The fifth section focuses on housing adjudication in Colombia. The fourth chapter presents an analysis of three different approaches that had been adopted within the compared jurisdictions. In addition, shows the methods and challenges of each approach and its impact on the development of socio-economic rights adjudication. |
| Supervisor | Professor: Uitz, Renáta |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/ellaboudy_ahmed.pdf |
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