ESC Rights Caselaw

In July 2004, a group of residents of the Matanza/Riachuelo basin filed a suit before the Supreme Court of Argentina against the national government, the Province of Buenos Aires, the City of Buenos Aires and 44 companies seeking compensation for damages resulting from pollution of the basin.

This is the next installment of ESCR-Justice, a monthly update highlighting an important economic, social or cultural rights (ESCR) case that has been added to the Caselaw Database. This edition of ESCR-Justice summarizes an important case decided by the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi on access to maternal healthcare.

Petitioners filed a constitutional claim challenging the imposition of fees on primary education (under Law 115 of 1994) in Colombia, which is the only country in the region without free primary education. The Court found the law unenforceable on two grounds: first that fees may only be applied to secondary and tertiary education and also because charging fees for primary school would contradict international human rights law which form the basis of Colombia’s Constitution.

This decision deals with the atrocities in Darfur and looks not only at violations of the right to life and to be free from torture, but also examines violations of economic, social and cultural rights in the context of forced displacement. The significance of this decision is that it includes several advances in the jurisprudence under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.