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Health Rights

SALC’s Health Rights programme envisions a region in which the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health is enjoyed equally with full respect for human rights, and where health service users are empowered to enforce respect for their rights.

The Programme has the following objectives:

  • To reform laws, policies and practices that contribute to exclusion and discrimination in the enjoyment of health, including laws that undermine the right to informed consent and HIV criminalisation laws.
  • To remove legal barriers to effective HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria treatment, care and prevention and to rights-affirming mental health.
  • To develop legal protections for the dignity and human rights of people living with HIV and TB and mental health users.
  • To strengthen accountability for discrimination in healthcare settings.
  • To advance the enjoyment of social and environmental determinants of health, particularly for marginalised and vulnerable populations.

On-going cases:

Completed cases:

Publications:

Litigation Manuals:

Training Tools:

Research Reports and Policy Briefs:

Criminal JusticeFreedom of Expression, Assembly and AssociationHealth RightsResearch Reports & Policy BriefsRule of LawSADC

SALC Policy Brief: A Legal Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on Justice and Rights in Southern Africa

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, various countries in the Southern African region have put in place restrictions on gatherings, free movement, commerce and expression. Many of these measures limit human rights and result in criminal sanctions for breach. This policy brief looks at these criminalising provisions within the context…
Staff Writer
26 May 2020
Children's RightsCriminal JusticeFocus areasHealth RightsMalawiNews

JOINT CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT CALLING FOR DECONGESTION OF MALAWI PRISONS AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC

9 April 2020, Malawi - We the undersigned organisations commend His Excellency, The State President, Arthur Peter Mutharika for including prison decongestion as one of the measures to combat COVID-19 in Malawi. In his Presidential Address on 4 April 2020, the State President announced new measures that the Government will undertake…
Anneke Meerkotter
9 Apr 2020
Health RightsRefugee and Migrant RightsSouth AfricaSubmissions

SALC Submissions on the South African National Health Insurance Bill (NHI)

These submissions detail the Southern Africa Litigation Centre’s (SALC’s) concerns that the National Health Insurance Bill, 2019, removes existing forms of access to healthcare services to certain categories of foreign nationals, particularly, asylum-seekers, certain categories of children and dependents, immigration detainees, citizens of the Southern Africa Development Community and other…
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh
28 Nov 2019