The realisation of socio-economic rights (SERs) is crucial to South Africa overcoming the persistent challenge of poverty and inequality. However, unless the implementation or SERs as promised in the Constitution is monitored and tracked over time, their inclusion on paper might not be felt in reality by millions of poor people.

The implementation of SERs, however, is subject to the internal limitation of “progressive realisation subject to available resources”, contained in the Constitution. Section 27(2) of the Constitution states that “The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights.”

Full document:  Policy brief 2_Monitoring rights_Healthcare