The importance of litigating the right to access sufficient food: Equal Education v Minister of Basic Education

Abstract

The right to food is a universally recognised right with prominent importance in international and regional human rights instruments. However, giving effect to the right is far more complex than its recognition, with billions suffering from hunger globally. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of food security and the need to ensure access to safe and nutritious food. With the South African National School Nutrition Programme especially hard hit by the pandemic, an analysis of the Equal Education v Minister of Basic Education (Equal Education) case highlights the complexity of litigating the right to food and the need for strong jurisprudence to give effect to it. The indivisibility and interrelated nature of the right is explored and how it complicates its justiciability in providing recourse in South Africa and the continent at large.