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Protection of Labour Rights in the Age of Democratization and Economic Restructuring in Southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Peter Nanyenya Takirambudde
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Extract

The contours of human rights, especially labour rights, have undergone significant shifts in the recent past in Southern Africa. Labour law regimes have been overhauled, resulting in large-scale changes, liberalization of controls over trade unions, loosening of strictures relating to the right to strike, freeing collective bargaining from excessive governmental interference and the extension of protective legislation to previously excluded workers. These developments have been a function of dramatic changes throughout die region. The transition in Soudiern Africa has encompassed die political, economic and legal fabrics of most countries. It has been under way since die late 1980s and is being extended daily. In die constitutional zone, diere is a discernible trend towards the constdtutionalization of social rights, thus settling the debate regarding positive and negative rights in favour of the interdependence, indivisibility and interconnectedness of human rights. The transformation in Soudiern Africa is emblematic of three critical developments: democratization, economic liberalization and paradigmatic transitions in law.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Spring 1995 , pp. 39 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1995

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