Presentation
This sixth issue of Sur International Journal on Human Rights has a special meaning for us because it reflects the initial results of an ongoing collaborative research project of our network. In June 2006, Sur started a research on "The Justiciability of Human Rights: India, Brazil and South Africa" aiming at comparing the implementation of human and constitutional rights by the Supreme Courts of these three countries.
India, Brazil and South Africa share a number of common features. All three enjoy relatively stable democratic systems and occupy key positions in their respective regions, both in the political and economic spheres. They also share common problems, namely the challenge of overcoming poverty, discrimination and inequality, and of promoting equal access to justice, good quality education, health and housing programs. In this sense, they share the common challenge of consolidating the rule of law and democratic institutions, as instruments to the realization of human rights for all as required by their own Constitutions and by the international human rights treaties they have ratified.
The objective of the research is to understand the role of the Constitutional Courts in India, Brazil and South Africa in the promotion and protection of human rights. The study also takes into account the role of civil society and public interest law organizations in their court-related interventions.
In this issue of the Journal, we have included two articles that reflect the initial dialogue among the researchers on the topic, one by Prof. Upendra Baxi, responsible for the research in India, and another by Prof. Oscar Vilhena Vieira, coordinator of the project and responsible for the research in Brazil. The article by Rodrigo Uprimny, who has also been cooperating with the project, discusses some aspects of the judicialization of politics in Colombia.
We are convinced that knowledge-sharing and research partnerships are the most efficient and consistent instruments to create a stronger intellectual community in the South. The initial steps of this research have confirmed our perception. Through collaborative research, strong links are established by professors and new ideas and opportunities for partnership are discovered.
This issue of the Sur Journal also examines women's rights in Latin America and rights of children in South Africa. Laura Pautassi's article reflects on the various steps taken in Latin America towards assuring equality between men and women, with special focus on the responsibility of the State regarding to labor regulations. Gert Jonker and Rika Swanzen's article presents the experience of the intermediary services provided for child witnesses in some areas in the western suburbs of Johannesburg.
Sergio Branco's article derives from his lecture at the VI International Human Rights Colloquium (Nov. 2006) on the impact of copyright regulation on human rights in the Brazilian context. He analyzes how the current copyright structure and the improper use of technology pose a serious threat to the implementation of the human rights to education.
Thomas Pogge focuses on the discussion of North-South inequality. He claims that the current appropriation of wealth from our planet is highly uneven, invoking three different grounds of injustice: the effects of shared social institutions, the uncompensated exclusion from the use of natural resources, and the effects of a common and violent history. Pogge shows that it may be possible to gather adherents of the dominant strands of Western normative political thought into a coalition dedicated to the eradication of world poverty through the creation of a Global Resources Dividend or GRD.
We would like to thank the following professors and partners for their contribution in the selection of articles for this issue: Ann Skelton, Alejandro Garro, Fateh Azzam, Flavia Piovesan, Florian Hoffmann, Glenda Mezarobba, J. Paul Martin, Jeremy Sarkin, Juan Amaya Castro, Lorena Fríes, Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida, Roberto Garretón, Thami Ngwenya and Vinodh Jaichand.
Finally, we would like to announce that the next edition of the Sur Journal will be a special issue on transitional justice, published in collaboration with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
17 July 2008 -
Date of issue
2007
