All Press Releases
23 September 2011
LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PRESS RELEASE
23 SEPTEMBER 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) brought an urgent High Court application last night (Thursday 22 September 2011) on behalf of the residents of the Schubart Park B Building in the Pretoria city centre. The residents had been removed from the building after fires were lit during a protest against the lack of water and electricity for the past...
14 September 2011
On Thursday, 15 September 2011 the Constitutional Court will hear the direct appeal of Nthabiseng Pheko and the Occupiers of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement and the Ekhuruleni Municipality. LHR has brought this appeal on behalf of the residents of this informal settlement who were forcibly removed in terms of disaster management legislation avoiding the protections against evictions which...
12 September 2011
On Tuesday, 13 September 2011 the Constitutional Court will hear an appeal brought by Lawyers for Human Rights on behalf of the occupants of two neighbouring portions of the farms Mooiplaas and Skurweplaas in Tshwane. The two matters were joined by the Constitutional Court and will be heard simultaneously and on an expedited basis.
At the centre of the dispute is the Itireleng Informal...
23 August 2011
The Constitutional Court today handed down judgment in which it dismissed the application by the Moutse Demarcation Forum challenging the12th Constitutional Amendment Act which removed the Moutse community from Mpumalanga province and placed it in Limpopo province.
The applicants based their challenge on two main points, firstly that the Act itself was irrational in that it...
23 August 2011
22 AUGUST 2011
The Registrar of the Constitutional Court of South Africa has informed us that the Court will hand down its judgment on Tuesday 23 August 2011 at 10:00am in Johannesburg.
The Moutse community approached the court in 2008 in order to challenge the Constitution 12th Amendment Act of 2005 which moved the community from Mpumalanga province to Limpopo province. The...
29 July 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights is concerned about the large numbers of Zimbabweans who will become vulnerable to arrest and deportation at the start of August when the moratorium on deportations is lifted. This moratorium has been in place since April 2009 when Home Affairs took the decision not to carry out any further deportations to Zimbabwe for a defined period. The moratorium was supposed to be...
27 July 2011
Speaking notes for the briefing to the media by Home Affairs Deputy Director-General, Jackie Mckay, Arcadia House, Arcadia, Pretoria, July 21 2011
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, in our weekly briefing today we will provide an update on our recent efforts to crack down on illegal immigration as well as an update on the Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP).
Efforts to crack...
15 July 2011
Johannesburg, 14 July 2011. Immigration detention in South Africa and internationally is extremely expensive, can harm the health and wellbeing of those detained and has been found to not be effective at deterring irregular migrants, including Zimbabweans. Global research spanning two years conducted by La Trobe University and the International Detention Coalition (IDC) found cheaper...
9 July 2011
LHR seeks to fill the following vacancies:
Attorney: Pretoria
The Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme seeks a self-motivated admitted attorney with an interest in constitutional and public interest litigation. Good writing and research skills are essential. High Court litigation experience would be an advantage. This is an opportunity to get exposure to international law, work with United...
1 July 2011
It is with an increasing sense of frustration that LHR has learned of comments made by Ms Maggie Maunye, Chairperson of the Parliament’s Home Affairs’ Portfolio Committee.
On 29 July 2011, Ms Maunye made comments during a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting implying that South Africans have not been able to enjoy freedom since 1994 due to the presence of foreign nationals...