Balancing Socio-economic Rights: Confronting COVID-19 in South Africa’s Informal Urban Settlements

In the context of a stand-off between housing rights advocates and the South African government over the appropriate way to safeguard the right to health in the country’s urban informal settlements during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article reflects on some of the strengths and weaknesses of the local understanding of human rights. It argues for a holistic understanding of interdependent rights that allows for a reconciliation of seemingly competing concerns, for renewed engagement with rights’ positive and participatory dimensions, and for the cross-fertilisation of concepts and mechanisms associated with their separable jurisprudential development.