LHR’s xenophobia interventions

Lawyers for Human Rights continues to monitor and assist victims of xenophobic violence that has again erupted across South Africa.

These interventions have focused on short, medium and long term solutions.

Several people have been killed so far in the attacks and thousands more injured and displaced. The spike in the violence raised questions of whether these attacks simply flare up every few years. The truth, however, is opposite. The targeting of foreign nationals remains a consistent phenomenon. While the usual incidents of reported violence are not of the scale of 2008 and 2015, we record daily instances of attacks. What this does is call up more difficult questions of efficient social integration programmes. Unfortunately, very few government interventions have done much to address this gap in social protection.

LHR has continued its assistance to those affected by the violence through a series of legal, advisory and advocacy efforts.

Legal assistance
• When the violence broke out first in January and again in April, LHR began a watching brief in criminal cases to ensure proper prosecution of alleged perpetrators. This brief expanded to assist those wanting to report criminal activity to the South African Police Service and interventions with officials unwilling to open cases.
• Assistance has been offered to those denied access to healthcare.
• Legal advice and liaison has been provided to the International Organisation on Migration for voluntary repatriations.
• Intervention was offered in responding to a xenophobic letter circulated by SANCO and the threat of legal action facilitated a settlement and withdrawal of the letter.

Advisory assistance
• LHR has been an active member of the UNHCR’s Protection Working Group and has been liaising extensively with the various spheres of government.
• Visiting and evaluating temporary shelters for those displaced and liaising with municipalities about the closure of shelters and reintegration possibilities – most recently at the Isipingo camp in KwaZulu-Natal.
• A hotline was set up to offer legal advice to affected people and facilitate referrals to partner organisations for social assistance.
• LHR lodged a formal complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission over the inflammatory comments made by King Zwelithini and Edward Zuma.

Advocacy efforts
• A large part of LHR’s time has been spent on public forums, attempting to steer public discourse on xenophobia. The majority of this was spent doing interviews for radio, television and newspapers.
• Opinion articles were published to highlight many of the concerns held by LHR in some of the public sentiments that were emerging.
• Assistance and attendance at peace marches in Durban and Johannesburg.
• LHR continues to participate in a joint civil society working group that includes Cormsa, Foundation for Human Rights, ActionAidSA and others.
• LHR was invited to speak at an Institute for Security Studies symposium on the causes of xenophobia in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Collaboration with the International Federation for Human Rights at the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights leading to a resolution being taken to call on the government to take decisive action against xenophobia.
• LHR responded to the imminent closure of the temporary places of shelter in Durban by liaising extensively with government, civil society, residents of the “camp” and community leaders.
• LHR is considering further litigation in the form of an Equality Court action against the King and a possible damages claim for a client severely injured in the closure of the Isipingo temporary camps