Blogs
On the 7th of July 2015 Selina Moyo** was walking on Stasie Street heading towards Birchleigh train station, in Kempton Park. She was coming from her place of employment where she worked as a domestic worker. Upon her arrival at Birchleigh station she was stopped by two South African Police Services (SAPS) officials, little did she know that her refusal to pay a bribe will result in her...
LHR, together with many legal NGOs, have noted with growing concern the manner in which repossessed houses are sold at public auctions. The fact that a reserve price is not mandatory for sales in execution as well as the lack of judicial oversight over these processes have led to substantial consequences for the judgment debtor, including those with constitutional implications.
New Mobile Service Provides Low-Cost HUMAN Rights Information to Non-Nationals Living in South Africa
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) supported by Praekelt Foundation and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration from the United States are preparing to launch a new, first-of-its-kind, mobile information service for non-nationals living in South Africa called Help@hand.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, almost half of the world’s forcibly displaced people are children. A number of factors lead to the migration of foreign children to South Africa. Some flee conflict and unrest, natural disaster or recruitment as child soldiers, while others leave their countries in the face of extreme poverty.
Tshepiso* is the mother of a boy named Lefa*, a beautiful two year old child born in South Africa. Lefa would have been no less special had he belonged to any other nation in the world. Unfortunately, in the entire world, there is no nation who will acknowledge his existence and offer him access to citizenship under its legislation.
New immigration regulations are causing consternation among foreign nationals living and working in South Africa, as the provisions severely prejudice their fight to become documented.
I recently attended an election-observer training session in preparation for next month’s elections. I was inspired by the chance to play my part in the democratic process shaping the future of our country.
Voting is an opportunity many South Africans did not have in the years before democracy and which South Africans paid a high price to obtain. It’s distressing that some...
Rita* fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to South Africa in 2009 after suffering unspeakable horrors and grave violations to her rights amid ongoing violence.
Weeks spent in queues turned into months and months turned into years for a Burundian mother of four who applied for asylum in South Africa back in 2008. Her asylum application was rejected by the refugee status determination officer (RSDO) and she appealed this decision to the Refugee Appeal Board (RAB) in the same year. Having appealed her status denial in 2008, today she awaits the...
*Selam sits nervously in my office, lost in thought. In tears, she recalls her brushes with violence and terror since leaving Ethiopia in 2009. She has been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, manifested by the continual abuse.
She is one of many people being helped by Lawyers for Human Rights’ pilot project, funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, aimed...