Constitution of South Africa
Topic: Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Remedies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Constitution: Why and How?"; Class 11, Ch 2 "Rights in the Indian Constitution"
Meaning
This is South Africa's constitution, adopted in December 1996 after the end of apartheid (South Africa's system of racial separation). It calls its Bill of Rights a "cornerstone of democracy". It makes social and economic rights to housing, health care, food, water and social security justiciable (enforceable in court). A Constitutional Court enforces these rights.
Example
India has taken a different path. Its courts read dignity, privacy, a clean environment and information into the right to life under Article 21. But food and social security still sit mainly in the Directive Principles. They are not written into the Constitution as rights people can enforce in court, as they are in South Africa.
Don't confuse with
- Indian Part III: India's Part III mainly lists civil and political rights. South Africa's Bill of Rights writes social and economic rights directly into the text.
Related concepts
- Fundamental rights
- Bill of rights
- Magna Carta
- Legal rights
- Constitutional rights outside Part III
- Restriction of rights of armed forces
- Martial law
- Article 35
- Suspension of fundamental rights during emergency