48 Chekera-Radu/Women’s land and property rights also found linkages between the rights to health in article 16 and the right to a general satisfactory environment in article 24.34 In Free Legal Assistance Group v Zaire, the Commission also expanded on the right to health by finding that the failure to provide for basic services such as safe drinking water were a violation of this right.35 Similarly, in the Sudan Human Rights Organisation and Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) v Sudan communication, the Commission showed its acceptance of interrelatedness of rights by referencing the jurisprudence of international law that includes the right to dignity as a component of the right to life.36 4 EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO WOMEN’S LAND AND PROPERTY RIGHTS In order to appreciate the development of equality within the African human rights system it is imperative to carry out an exposition of the right to equality and non-discrimination in order to ascertain how the right is formulated, how it has developed and has been interpreted and applied at various levels. The section makes reference to equality under the United Nations human rights system and at domestic level. A review of literature on the right to equality shows that the earliest conceptions of equality are generally traced back to Aristotle who posited the view that like should be treated as alike and unlike cases differently.37 This view of equality known as formal equality is based on the view that fairness arises from equal treatment rendered on the basis of similarities in determined characteristics. What formal equality calls for is that laws and policies apply to everyone in the same way. In ensuring formal equality an individual’s circumstances are of no relevance and as a result formal equality is said to disfavour arbitrary decision making.38 It is worth mentioning at this point that formal equality is closely intertwined with the prohibition of direct discrimination which like formal equality also relies on comparators. It is akin to the prohibition of direct discrimination which sanctions less favourable treatment based on a prohibited ground. Formal equality and non-discrimination therefore emphasises that opportunities should not be availed on the basis of group identity but rather on merit. 34 Sudan Human Rights Organisation and Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (COHRE) v Sudan (2009) AHRLR 153 (ACHPR 2009). 35 Free Legal Assistance Group and Others v Zaire (2000) AHRLR 74 (ACHPR 1995) para 47. 36 Sudan Human Rights Organisation (n 34 above) para 146. 37 A Smith ‘Equality constitutional adjudication in South Africa’ (2014) 14 African Human Rights Law Journal 609 611; P Westen ‘The empty idea of equality’ (1982) 95 Harvard Law Review 537. 38 ‘The ideas of equality and non-discrimination: formal and substantive equality’ http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/The%20Ideas%20of%20Equality% 20and%20Non-discrimination,%20Formal%20and%20Substantive%20Equality.pdf (accessed 25 June 2017).