South African Child Gauge 2009/201012

Article 24 of the United Nations Conven-tion on the Rights of the Child provides for“the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health”. This provision expands on the right to health in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and a similar right is found in article 14 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The treaties define health broadly to include the underlying determinants of health such as “access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupa-tional and environmental conditions, and access to health related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health”.1 The South African Constitution includes children’s right to basic health care services and a range of socio-economic rights that place the same obligations on the State as the right to health in international law (see pp. 22 – 28). The essay in this section describes and interprets legis-lative developments relevant to child health in 2009/2010. These include the Children’s Act, the Prevention of and Treat-ment for Substance Abuse Act, provincial health legislation