The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa


SERI is a public interest law litigation clinic, which means they work with communities in ensuring that their Human Rights are respected. They are also a research institute, which does research and advocacy on the number of issues that they work with.

The first was looking into the issues of housing and evictions that were taking place but the work that they’ve began looking at was ensuring that the socio-economic rights of people are respected and that people are able to exercise their rights as far as elections. SERI is producing the documentary together with Two Spinning Wheels Film Production and Pegasys Institute. The Constitution guarantees the right to water and sanitation for everyone. These rights cannot only be enjoyed by the wealthy, able-bodied and people living in formal settlements to the exclusion of low-income households, people living with disabilities and those in informal settlements.

They have taken on a number of cases and worked on a number of research projects that have highlighted wants and needs and how they can better socio-economic and human rights.  They have furthered their research and advocacy work, and participated in a number of exciting civil society and government engagements. These include workshops and dialogues with the South African Cities Network, Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.

In terms of our research, they've recently launched a user-friendly guide on the right of domestic workers and a working paper on the City of Johannesburg's decision to withdraw the universal provision of free basic water. Some older research on the realisation of the rights to housing, water and sanitation has also been published by the Foundation for Human Rights. This user-friendly resource guide aims to create awareness of the rights of domestic workers and the obligations of employers in terms of the domestic employment relationship. It explains what the law says about domestic workers and gives practical advice on how domestic workers can engage with their employers. SERI also launched a series of short, mobile-friendly information sheets on the rights of domestic workers in IsiZulu.



Written By: Micurls Muller

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