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- 27th July 2020
In Equal Education and Others v Minister of Basic Education, the organisation Equal Education and the school governing bodies of two public schools (“the applicants”), represented by SECTION27 and the Equal Education Law Centre, sought an order directing the government to resume the National School Nutrition Programme (“NSNP”) and for the court to issue a […]
Mwai Daka - 1st June 2020
Excluded from school since the civil war, orphaned by the deadly Ebola outbreak, and now quarantined by Covid-19, the judgement in the case of WAVES CWS-SL and The Republic of Sierra Leone is a landmark for pregnant girls in Sierra Leone. The judgement sets a precedent that young girls have a right to education without […]
- 28th May 2020
On February 10, the Supreme Court of India (SC) issued a notice to prohibit children from entering the areas where Anti – CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests were held. The notice was issued in a matter where the SC took suo moto cognisance of the involvement of children in protests in a letter addressing the […]
Michael Rebell - 9th May 2020
In a landmark decision issued last week in the Gary B. v. Whitmer case, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held there is a “fundamental right to a basic minimum education” under the U.S. Constitution. The two-to-one decision of the three-judge panel defined the right in terms of “access to literacy.” Students in very […]
Meghan Finn - 18th April 2020
Three weeks into an extensive national lockdown, the South African government has yet to announce any concrete economic relief for the country’s poorest households. This is notwithstanding compelling economic analysis that demonstrates that the best way to distribute relief quickly to those most in need is to top up child support grants. South Africa’s public […]
Abby Buttle - 4th January 2020
On Thursday 12 December, the Makhanda High Court affirmed that all learners in South Africa have the constitutional right to a basic education and that the right cannot be denied because of a lack of identification documents. The High Court found that a policy and circular which made school admission and funding conditional on learners […]
Jade Weiner - 5th November 2019
On the 18th of September 2019, Chief Justice Mogoeng handed down a unanimous judgment declaring the common law defence of moderate and reasonable chastisement constitutionally invalid. Freedom of Religion SA (FoR SA) argued that parents should be able to use physical force upon a child as a means of corrective educational discipline. The state should […]
Sadaf Vafa - 21st July 2019
In February 2019, the news of an 11-year-old girl being married to a man who was almost 50 years old, caused severe criticism of the Iranian Civil Code, which allows for the marriage of children under the age of 18. According to the most recent statistics by UNICEF, 17 percent of girls in Iran are […]
Anneloes Hoff - 10th June 2019
On 14 May 2019, the Dutch Senate adopted the Child Labour Due Diligence Law [Wet zorgplicht kinderarbeid]. The law requires companies selling goods or services to Dutch consumers to identify and prevent child labour in their supply chains. In doing so, the Netherlands follows an international trend towards mandatory corporate human rights due diligence. Over […]
Eliana Barrera and Leonardo Cofre - 5th April 2019
878 deaths of children under the care of the Chilean National Children’s Service are currently under criminal investigation. This revelation was followed by the submission of a complaint under the communications procedure of the Committee of the Rights of the Child (CRC), resulting in a damming report in June 2018 on the serious and systematic violation of children’s rights by […]
Adilya Zhilgildina - 5th April 2019
Teenage pregnancy rates in Kazakhstan are high, with 3443 births in 2017, much higher than during the Soviet period. As a means to decrease the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, the Vice Minister of Healthcare has proposed a more liberal abortion regime by making abortions more accessible to teenagers, providing access to birth control and introducing […]
Aastha Malhotra - 30th November 2018
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, which was laid on the tables of both Houses in August 2017, no longer allows non-Indians to commission surrogacy in India. Only infertile Indian couples with at least five years of marriage and proved infertility are allowed surrogacy on altruistic grounds with a close female relative acting as a surrogate […]