This groundWork Report looks at South Africa’s democratic constitutional order and asks: Can it deliver
environmental justice?
The idea of human rights, set down in the Bill of Rights, is at the heart of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights
promises political and personal freedom and dignity: everyone should be free to participate in deciding how
South Africa will be governed and no-one should be abused – they should not, for example, be subject to
torture, forced labour or arbitrary imprisonment. It promises that everyone should be able to live decently, that
they should have decent housing, clean water and enough to eat, that they should have access to health care
and education and that they should get support if they do not have enough to support themselves and their
families. They won’t necessarily get these things immediately, but they will get them as soon as is reasonably
possible. The Bill of Rights also promises that they will not be harmed by their environment and that the
environment itself will be nurtured for the benefit of present and future generations.
