Chapter 1 - South African Human Rights Commission

• physical accessibility of goods and services;
• economic accessibility and affordability of services;
• non-discrimination; and
• information accessibility.
Taking this into account, access can be de ned as the minimum conditions required in order for the state to meet
its constitutional mandate of progressively realising economic and social rights.
2.2.2. Progressive Realisation
In General Comment No. 3 of the UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, progressive realisation
“imposes an obligation to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible” toward the full realisation of the
right. 53 The UN Committee further held that socio-economic rights contain a minimum core obligation that must be
ful lled by state parties. 54 This would require every state party to ful l minimum essential levels of these rights and
a failure to do so may constitute a prima facie failure to discharge its obligations under the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This means that minimum core obligations are in fact components of
progressive realisation and the two cannot be divorced from one another. The minimum core obligation can be
de ned as the minimum standards for de ning the right in question to ensure that the basic subsistence needs of
the population are met. Therefore, progressive realisation should be seen as a continuum where the rationale is
to start at the minimum socio-economic provision necessary to meet people’s basic needs (minimum obligation)
to its full realisation of the signi cant improvement of the capabilities of people in society to the extent that they
can meaningfully participate in and shape society.
2.2.3. Fullment and Enjoyment
Ful lment is dened as the minimum conditions that are required for the state to meet its obligations in order for
individuals and groups to obtain access to an economic and social right. The enjoyment of the right should be
seen as the articulation of such ful lment.
These concepts and how they articulate with one another within the spectrum starting from access to the right to
its full realisation can be graphically represented as follows:
Figure 1: Spectrum of Progressive Realisation of Rights
A
C
C
E
S
S
R
I
G
H
T
S
M
I
N
I
M
U
M
C
O
N
D
I
T
I
O
N
S
ENJOYMENT OF
RIGHTS
PROGRESSIVE
REALISATION
F
U
L
L
R
E
A
L
I
S
A
T
I
O
N
In the General Comments, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has provided normative
content and criteria for monitoring specic economic and social rights. 55 Although these criteria vary depending
on the specic right, the core denominators are accessibility, availability, acceptability and appropriateness (or
quality). These criteria will be applied within the rights-based approach in the following chapters when assessing
the progressive realisation of the speci c rights.
In conclusion, it should be noted that these criteria are not legally binding and there is a need to develop a new
enforceable methodological framework.
53 General Comment (note 41 above) 3 (9).
54 Ibid 3 (10).
55 General Comment (note 4 above).
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7 th Report on Economic and Social Rights, South African Human Rights Commission, 2006–2009