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Faculty of Law
Department of Private Law
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The greatest threat South African children face at birth is the risk of HIV infection from HIV positive mothers. At the end of 1997 80 000 children below the age of fifteen years were estimated to be infected. HIV/AIDS and children's rights was therefore a focus area for research done by the Centre for Child Law during the past year. Although children's rights are carefully provided for in our Constitution and international instruments ratified by the South African government, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has a devastating effect on the most vulnerable in our society. In the recent Treatment Action Campaign case (Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign case CCT 8/02) the Constitutional Court ordered the government to implement a programme to realise progressively the rights of pregnant women and their newborn children to have access to health care services that would enable them to combat mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This ruling brought hope to thousands and is an indication that socio-economic rights should not be dismissed as impractical or unaffordable. But the plight of AIDS orphans also needs to be addressed. Not only do these children suffer the loss of one or both parents with all the economic consequences thereof, they are frequently also stigmatised and ostracised by their communities. Children's right to education and to receive AIDS education are also considered in this context. Furthermore, the correlation between HIV/AIDS and substance abuse among the young is a matter of great concern.
Contact person: Prof CJ Davel.
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