Contact person:
Jacky Thomas
Tel:
(021) 447 1217
Cell:
083 673 5115
Email:
jackythomas@telkomsa.net
Organisation:
Health and Human Rights Programme, School of Public Health and
Family Medicine, University of Cape Town,
Position:
Researcher
Session Information Session title (max. 20 words)
“Is knowing that you have rights enough?” A learning network to realise the right to
health” - Taking action to realise the right to health at community level.”
Short session summary (max. 50 words):
Exploring women’s awareness, understandings and practice of human rights, particularly the
right to health amongst women, within a community-based network called The Women’s Circle
Session description (max. 600 words): Building effective alliances with and learning from
other social movements
Women within TWCs awareness, understandings and practice of human rights, particularly the
right to health and the challenges and achievements of participating in global, regional, national
and local human rights campaigns.
Abstract:
The right to health and health care is increasingly being recognized in national and international
law. For example, the South African constitution says that everyone has the right of access to
health care and to an environment not harmful to their health, amongst many other provisions
related to health. Similarly, provisions in the International Covenant on Social, Economic and
Cultural Rights speak to a right to health, which is later elaborated in a General Comment. The
Alma Ata declaration on Primary Health Care defined health as a right. Despite all these
powerful international norms and standards, the practical realization of health as a right remains
elusive, even in a country like South Africa, with high levels of formal legal commitments to
human rights.
The Women’s Circle (TWC) is a locally based network of women across 30 communities in Cape
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Town, who come together to share information, knowledge, skills and experiences in an attempt
to improve the quality of their lives. TWC participates in a range of international, regional and
local campaigns and programmes around human rights. Yet, the women within TWC’s
knowledge of human rights is vague and vary, leading to a lack of understanding of how human
rights can concretely be applied to advance their programme of action and add quality to their
daily lives.
In order to reduce health inequalities and advance the right to health, there is a need to develop
women’s individual and collective agency in order to increase women’s ability to exert influence
on and access their right to health within the communities they come from. For this to happen
women have to be able to articulate their human rights; make informed choices rather than
accept the prescriptions of public health services, as well as take action when engaging with local
health structures for example health fora and community health centres which are currently
systems of power and decision-making.
This submission is based on a case-study which explored and assessed women within TWCs
awareness, understandings and practice of human rights generally, their own rights and
particularly the right to health and TWCs involvement in a civil society network to realize the
right to health. The presentation will relate to the findings of the study and TWCs involvement
in the action learning network and other human rights campaigns and movements. The lessons
learnt will offer a more sustainable and meaningful opportunity for civil society engagement
around human rights generally and particularly within the health sector. Not just around health
care, but also in changing the conditions that shape health and health inequalities in South Africa
today.
Short biography (max. 100 words)
Jacky Thomas is an adult educator and is a researcher within the Health and Human Rights
Programme, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town. Her work
involves working with a network of civil society organizations to explore the understanding and
practice of human rights by civil society groups working on health objectives and health workers
in the Western Cape. Before this she was the programme manager of The Women’s Circle a
community-based network of women, who through partnerships with civil society organisations
aim to develop coordinated programmes of action aimed at increasing the ability of women to
participate effectively in society by creating an enabling environment within which women can
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empower themselves and their communities. Over the years, she has also been involved in a
range of adult learning campaigns and acted as project manager for the Learning Cape Festival
and International Adult Learners Week when hosted in South Africa
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