Legal Recognition for Child-Headed Households: An Evaluation of the Emerging South African Framework

Abstract

This article evaluates legislation developed in South Africa for the legal recognition and support of child-headed households. It provides an explanation and critical analysis of new statutory provisions. We show that in a developing country with AIDS pandemic challenges and limited resources such as South Africa reasons in favour of formal legal recognition outweigh those against. We demonstrate, however, that in order to meet the best interests standard it is essential to base recognition on household viability. Our analysis indicates that, although the South African provisions are groundbreaking and of considerable value as an example for other countries, there are some deficiencies which may compromise their effectiveness. Amendments and supplementary wording are proposed.

Cluster Foster Care: A Panacea for the Care of Children in the Era of Hiv/Aids or an McQ?

“…Notably, these constitute the breakdown of traditional kinship structures which would ordinarily have accommodated orphans and other vulnerable children, a decrease in the capacity of existing extended family structures to care for the numbers of children requiring alternative care, and the emergence of child-headed households. The topic of child-headed households, too, has emerged as a key concept in international child rights law (Couzens & Zaal, 2009;Sloth-Nielsen, 2004; Sloth-Nielsen in Skelton & Davel, 2010; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC), General Comment No. 3 on HIV/AIDS and the rights of the child, 2003), and this phenomenon has been directly related to the onset of the pandemic.…”