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User Rights Workshop Series

The Right to Education and The copyright Amendment Bill

Sanya Samtani

October 30, 2020
10:00am EST

On 16 June 2020, the President of South Africa returned the 2019 Copyright Amendment Bill to Parliament, expressing reservations regarding its constitutionality and compliance with international law. In this paper, I describe the constitutional implications of compliance with international law and the binding international obligations incumbent upon South Africa in respect of copyright and international human rights law. In doing so, argue that the Bill of Rights acts as a magnet, compelling all organs of state to give greater normative weight to those international obligations that map onto the Bill of Rights as compared to those that do not. Finally, I explain how the provisions of the CAB that are specifically tailored to enable access to educational materials for all are not only permitted under South Africa’s international copyright obligations but are required by the Bill of Rights and South Africa’s international human rights obligations using the magnet analysis. 

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About the Author

Sanya Samtani is a candidate for a DPhil (PhD) in Law at the University of Oxford and a former foreign law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa (2018). This working paper draws from her doctoral research on ‘The Right of Access to Educational Materials’, which focuses on the intersection between international copyright and human rights law – on the international plane, as well as in India and South Africa.

User Rights Network Series

This event is part of a series presenting research from the Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights.