ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa

The Dullah Omar Institute hosted a community leaders training workshop (28–29 May 2019) on the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs) and access to justice. The purpose of the event was to examine how the SDGs affect vulnerable and marginalised groups and how communities can use the SDGs to access their right to justice. It was an opportunity for social justice activists, advocates, academics, community-based organisations and nongovernmental organisations to discuss the importance of the SDGs in the South African context.

At the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, held on 27 July 2018, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Special Rapporteur) addressed the General Assembly. This report formed item 74(b) of the provisional agenda covering issues relating to the promotion and protection of all human rights, human rights questions, and alternative approaches to the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is remarkable not only for its magnificent ecology as one of the world’s largest wetlands but for its richness in natural resources, which include extensive oil deposits that make for over 90 per cent of the country’s oil. It is also one of the most threatened and rapidly deteriorating natural habitats in the world.

More than four decades of resource-exploitation have created incredible wealth for transnational oil corporations and turned Nigeria into a petrol-dollar state; by the same token, they have left the local population deeply impoverished and devastated the environment. It is an unjust and inequitable situation that stems from, on the one hand, corporate greed and irresponsibility, and, on the other, governmental arbitrariness and indifference.

The result has been a tit-for-tat conflict between militants in the region and the Nigerian government. While the militant groups rightly or wrongly protest against human rights abuses through criminal activities, the government in turn unleashes military forces to ‘curb’ the violence. Hence, the conflict has spread like wildfire, threatenening the social, economic and political security of the region and the country at large.

The principal contention in this article is that conflict and abuses persist in the region chiefly because the Nigerian government and oil corporations fail to be accountable for the exploitation. After an overview of the Niger Delta’s history, the article sets out the major economic, social and cultural rights violations that have occurred and examines the government’s attempts at developing the region.