All Press Releases
7 February 2012
Media Release - Mining-Environment-Communities Alliance:
Statement for the Mining Indaba
7 February 2012
1. For the past two years, there has been ongoing engagement between civil society, community organisations, academic institutions and law clinics increasingly concerned about the impacts of mining on the environment and on the communities that rely on...
3 February 2012
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), with the financial support of Legal Aid South Africa, has brought a challenge to the new rules of judicial review, which application will be heard in the North Gauteng High Court on Monday 6 February 2012.
The application has been brought against the Rules Board for Courts of Law, who drafted the rules, and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional...
20 January 2012
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has noted the Department of Home Affairs’ continued efforts to unlawfully prevent refugees from submitting applications for asylum at the country’s refugee reception offices. In terms of a recent policy change, new applicants for asylum will be required to produce an Asylum Transit Permit, which should be available at border posts, when they...
14 December 2011
The North Gauteng High Court has handed down judgment today setting aside Department of Home Affairs' decision not to open a refugee reception office in Johannesburg and directing the Director-General to reconsider his decision.
Lawyers for Human Rights was representing the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants and the Coordinating Body of the Refugee Communities. These groups challenged...
13 December 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Refugee Rights Centre at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, on behalf of the Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) and the Project for Conflict Resolution and Development (PCRD) was granted an order by consent today, Tuesday 13 December 2011 in the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth regarding the closure of the Port Elizabeth Refugee...
7 December 2011
Today the Constitutional Court delivered two unanimous judgments in favour of the occupants of Mooiplaats and Skurweplaas, located adjacent to the Itireling informal settlement in Pretoria. Lawyers for Human Rights acted on behalf of the occupiers who were to be rendered homeless, as a result of an eviction order granted by the North Gauteng High Court. Leave to appeal the High Court judgments...
6 December 2011
Today the Constitutional Court handed down a unanimous judgment in the matter of Nthabiseng Pheko and the Occupiers of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement versus the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The Court found that the actions of the Municipality, in forcibly removing the residents of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement and demolishing their homes without a Court order, allegedly as a...
15 November 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is a leading human rights organisation with a 30 year track record of human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. We offer lawyers an exciting and challenging work environment covering a wide range of human rights work, which includes refugee and migrant rights, land reform and housing, security of farm workers, child rights and...
5 October 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights is disappointed with today’s decision by the Constitutional Court to dismiss leave to appeal on behalf of the residents of the Schubart Park flats in Pretoria. As hundreds of families struggle to secure emergency accommodation and the City of Tshwane continues to remove the residents’ belongings in the absence of any Court order or legal mechanism...
25 September 2011
Schubart Park Residents Spend Weekend on Streets Despite City’s Promises
The evicted residents of Schubart Park spent the weekend on the streets of Pretoria after the City of Tshwane failed to fulfill its promises to provide alternative accommodation to them.
Residents were allowed into the buildings for a brief period to collect their belongings, but then spent the rest of...