Volume: Volume 17 - 2013

Article type: Refereed article

Author/s: Chenwi, Lilian

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights makes no mention of the right to housing. Notwithstanding this limitation, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has creatively, and through applying the principle of interdependence of rights, interpreted other rights in the Charter to include a right to adequate housing plus a right to protection against forced evictions. This article considers the right to adequate housing in the African regional human rights system, with specific emphasis on its enforcement by the African Commission. The discussion of the recognition of the right in the African system and the jurisprudence on it is set against the backdrop of South Africa's approach to the protection and enforcement of this right, with the aim of identifying instances of convergence with or divergence from South Africa's approach.

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