Children’s rights jurisprudence in South Africa – a 20 year retrospective

This article provides a 20 year overview of children's rights jurisprudence in South Africa, with a predominant focus on cases in the public law arena (as opposed to family law). After identifying various themes that the author believes are worthy of note, such as the interplay between best interests and the child's rights to dignity; the innovative remedies that have characterised child rights case outcomes; and the courts' engagement with international law, the article concludes that constitutionalising children's rights has the advantage of elevating their status to the highest point in a legal system. Moreover, rights having the capacity to shift the balance of power, and for children, the framing of their rights in constitutional terms has resoundingly dislodged paternalistic approaches rooted in welfarism.