On 5 September 2024, SERI senior researcher, Dr Yvonne Erasmus, participated in an Expert Symposium on Social Justice, Hunger, and the Constitution at the Bertha Retreat at Boschendal. The symposium was initiated and hosted by the Centre for Social Justice, Stellenbosch University (CSJ) and aimed to gather constitutional experts to examine the progress made in the effort to eradicate hunger, and to analyse the right to food by considering relevant constitutional frameworks, the international human rights framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the National Development Plan (NDP) through a social justice perspective. The event was facilitated by Centre for Social Justice director Professor Thuli Madonsela who also located the discussions within a social justice framing.
The event brought together more than 30 participants from civil society, academia, law clinics, government, and the corporate sector. Yvonne spoke on a panel focusing on the role and performance of business, civil society, and international partners. She drew on SERI’s emerging work on food insecurity, the right to food, the experiences of those affected, and the remedy they seek.
For media coverage of the event see:
- A nation hungry for justice, Thuli Madonsela, City Press (8 September 2024).
- At least 116 children died from malnutrition in the Eastern Cape in one year, Mike Loewe, Ground Up (9 September 2024).
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Tackling hunger in SA is a constitutional imperative, not charity, say experts, Naledi Sikhakhane, Daily Maverick (10 September 2024).