Author: Timothy Fish Hodgson

[Timothy Fish Hodgson is a senior legal adviser for ESC Rights at the International Commission of Jurists (Africa). Valentin Büchi is a legal intern with the International Commission of Jurists (Africa).] On 23 April 2025, the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa (SCA) handed down a judgment in which it found that an eviction order against waste reclaimers had to fully consider...

[Petronella Mukaindo is an associate legal adviser at the International Commission of Jurists (Africa). Timothy Fish Hodgson is a senior legal adviser for ESC Rights at the International Commission of Jurists (Africa).] On 20 December 2024, the South African Constitutional Court handed down its judgment in O’Brien N.O. v Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and Others 2024 ZACC 30, affirming that...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Senior Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists, based in South Africa.] [Jonas Kakule Sindani is an Intern for the International Commission of Jurists, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.] In a recent submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty (the special rapporteurs), the International Commission...

[Timothy Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists. Roojin Habibi is a Research Fellow, Global Strategy Lab, and PhD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. Benjamin Mason Meier is Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Sharifah Sekalala  is an Associate Professor of Global Health Law at...

[Roojin Habibi, Tim Fish Hodgson, Benjamin Mason Meier, Ian Seiderman and Steven Hoffman] The COVID-19 pandemic unequivocally reveals that human rights, the rule of law, democratic institutions and global solidarity are essential to effective public health emergency preparedness and response. Reiterated throughout discussions in the World Health Assembly (WHA) between 24 and 31 May 2021, there is now clear global consensus on the need to strengthen international...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists.] Part 1 of this blog, details how the Malawian High Court struck down lockdown Rules issued by the Minister of Health as ultra vires, contrary to the rule of law and in violation of the separation of powers. This strong stand taken by the Court to protect the rule of law...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists.] In August this year, Timothy Mtambo, now Minister of Civic Education and National Unity in Malawi, wrote that “we now have a judiciary that is more independent than at any other time in the history of Malawi”, noting that former President Mutharika, who was in office until late June 2020 attempted...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists. Ian Seiderman is the Legal and Policy Director of the International Commission of Jurists.] The first part of this post looked at the general obligations of the right to health in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, including in relation to the private sector. We now turn to the...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists. Ian Seiderman is the Legal and Policy Director of the International Commission of Jurists.] In evaluating the existing or potential human rights consequences of the varied State responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, a great deal of attention has been focused on the question of limitations or emergency-based derogations to human rights protections...

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists in Johannesburg, South Africa.] A Kenyan Court of Appeal decision handed down last week has, once again, reaffirmed the Kenyan government’s international obligation to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should he ever return to Kenya. The Court concluded “the Government of Kenya by inviting al Bashir to Kenya...