The utilisation of the right of children to shelter to alleviate poverty in South Africa

Children being the most vulnerable members of society are the one's most affected by living in poverty. This unacceptable situation can inter alia be attributed to the disastrous effects of Apartheid. During this unfortunate period in our nation's history millions of people were unjustly evicted from their homes and forced to live in deplorable conditions. Moreover, many of these people were left homeless or without the necessary adequate shelter. Children who were born into these circumstances were denied basic resources such as proper shelter, food, water and health care services. These unfortunate circumstances existed at the adoption of South Africa 's democratic Constitution. The preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 reaffirms government's commitment to heal the inequalities of the past and improve the quality of life of all citizens. The Constitution is based on certain fundamental values, most importantly, human dignity, freedom and equality. The fact that these values are denied to those people living without access to basic resources such as adequate housing/shelter, food, water or health care services cannot be dismissed. To facilitate South Africa 's development as a democratic state based on human dignity, freedom and equality, the problem of poverty must be addressed. The Constitutional Court , in Government of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Grootboom and Others 2000 11 BCLR 1169 (CC), has recently stated that the effective realisation of socio-economic rights is key to the advancement of a value based democratic South Africa . Section 26 of the Constitution grants everyone the right to have access to adequate housing and section 28 that grants every child the additional right to basic shelter among others. By virtue of section 28(1)(b) the primary responsibility to provide children with the necessary adequate housing/shelter is vested in their parents, unless the parents are unable to fulfil their duty or the children are removed from their care. This does not in the least mean that the state has no responsibilities to children living with their parents. The state must still provide the framework in which parents can facilitate the realisation of their children's rights. The state can fulfil this obligation by taking reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to realise everyone's right of access to adequate housing progressively.  Therefore, it is submitted that the measures taken to realise section 26 also indirectly ensures the realisation of children's right to basic shelter (section 28(1)(c)). It has been largely accepted by the courts and academics alike that all fundamental human rights are indivisible and interrelated. Clearly then, the state's obligations in terms of section 28(1)(c) cannot be properly interpreted without referring to the interpretation of those obligations conferred upon it by section 26(2) and the other socio-economic rights in the Constitution. Hence, section 28(1)(c) must be seen in the context of the Constitution as a whole. Put simply, the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to realise children's right to basic housing/shelter progressively. This article will focus on the utilisation of the right to shelter of the child to alleviate poverty. Essential to this discussion is an effective understanding of the right to basic shelter as entrenched by section 28 of the Constitution in conjunction with the right of access to adequate housing conferred on everyone by virtue of section 26. This will be achieved by studying the general working of such rights including their limitations and enforcement

Legislative and other measures taken by government to realise the right of children to shelter

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 entrenches numerous socio-economic rights. One of these socio-economic rights is contained in section 26 that grants everyone the right to have access to adequate housing and section 28 that grants every child the additional right to basic shelter among others. This article aims to examine the legislative and other measures taken by the state to realise the right to shelter of children. Firstly, the legislative measures taken specifically for the realisation of children's right to basic shelter as envisaged by section 28(1)(c) will be discussed. Thereafter attention will be drawn to those measures taken to ensure the progressive realisation of section 26. Section 26 provides everyone, including children, the right of access to adequate housing. Therefore, every measure taken to realise section 26 is indirectly applicable to the realisation of section 28(1)(c) and children's right to basic shelter. The conclusion may be drawn that most of the discussed legislative and other measures are aimed at realising everyone's right of access to adequate housing, this includes children. However, most of these measures make little mention of the specific right of children to basic shelter. It is regarded as inclusive in the overall application of the legislation. Once again, it must be stressed that these legislative and other measures, in order to comply with the standard of reasonableness, must regard the interest of children to be paramount. If such legislation does not provide for the interest of children as a vulnerable group, it can be argued that the relevant legislative measure is not constitutionally valid. It is submitted that national government must recognise the importance of the role of local government, and local government should increasingly assume policy-making and implementation powers in their area. This will go a long way to building local capacity to function as effective development facilitators. As far as the resource problem is concerned, corruption in municipalities should be eradicated, while municipal capacity to manage and mobilise resources must be enhanced.  The importance of co-operative government cannot be over emphasised. Without an effective integrated plan of action, which includes cooperation between all three spheres of government, as well as the participation of civil society, especially people who are directly affected by the implementation of socio-economic rights, realising the right of children to shelter will only exist on paper

Legislative and other measures taken by government to realise the right of children to shelter

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 entrenches numerous socio-economic rights. One of these socio-economic rights is contained in section 26 that grants everyone the right to have access to adequate housing and section 28 that grants every child the additional right to basic shelter among others. This article aims to examine the legislative and other measures taken by the state to realise the right to shelter of children. Firstly, the legislative measures taken specifically for the realisation of children's right to basic shelter as envisaged by section 28(1)(c) will be discussed. Thereafter attention will be drawn to those measures taken to ensure the progressive realisation of section 26. Section 26 provides everyone, including children, the right of access to adequate housing. Therefore, every measure taken to realise section 26 is indirectly applicable to the realisation of section 28(1)(c) and children's right to basic shelter.The conclusion may be drawn that most of the discussed legislative and other measures are aimed at realising everyone's right of access to adequate housing, this includes children. However, most of these measures make little mention of the specific right of children to basic shelter. It is regarded as inclusive in the overall application of the legislation. Once again, it must be stressed that these legislative and other measures, in order to comply with the standard of reasonableness, must regard the interest of children to be paramount. If such legislation does not provide for the interest of children as a vulnerable group, it can be argued that the relevant legislative measure is not constitutionally valid.It is submitted that national government must recognise the importance of the role of local government, and local government should increasingly assume policy-making and implementation powers in their area. This will go a long way to building local capacity to function as effective development facilitators. As far as the resource problem is concerned, corruption in municipalities should be eradicated, while municipal capacity to manage and mobilise resources must be enhanced. The importance of co-operative government cannot be over emphasised. Without an effective integrated plan of action, which includes cooperation between all three spheres of government, as well as the participation of civil society, especially people who are directly affected by the implementation of socio-economic rights, realising the right of children to shelter will only exist on paper

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Tissue resolved, gene structure refined equine transcriptome.

BackgroundTranscriptome interpretation relies on a good-quality reference transcriptome for accurate quantification of gene expression as well as functional analysis of genetic variants. The current annotation of the horse genome lacks the specificity and sensitivity necessary to assess gene expression especially at the isoform level, and suffers from insufficient annotation of untranslated regions (UTR) usage. We built an annotation pipeline for horse and used it to integrate 1.9 billion reads from multiple RNA-seq data sets into a new refined transcriptome.ResultsThis equine transcriptome integrates eight different tissues from 59 individuals and improves gene structure and isoform resolution, while providing considerable tissue-specific information. We utilized four levels of transcript filtration in our pipeline, aimed at producing several transcriptome versions that are suitable for different downstream analyses. Our most refined transcriptome includes 36,876 genes and 76,125 isoforms, with 6474 candidate transcriptional loci novel to the equine transcriptome.ConclusionsWe have employed a variety of descriptive statistics and figures that demonstrate the quality and content of the transcriptome. The equine transcriptomes that are provided by this pipeline show the best tissue-specific resolution of any equine transcriptome to date and are flexible for several downstream analyses. We encourage the integration of further equine transcriptomes with our annotation pipeline to continue and improve the equine transcriptome