All Press Releases
18 March 2013
The undersigned civil society organisations condemn in the strongest terms the arrest and continued detention of veteran Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
Mtetwa was arrested on Sunday, 17 March 2013, while attempting to provide legal assistance to Thabani Mpofu, Director of Research and Development in the Office of the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, who was arrested...
1 March 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights has noted the death of Mozambican national Mido Macia - allegedly due to police brutality after being dragged behind a police vehicle and assaulted while in detention - with deep concern and calls for an urgent investigation by SAPS and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate into the matter.
The taxi driver was later found dead in the holding cells of the...
15 February 2013
The report Policy Shifts in the South African Asylum System: Evidence and Implications, compiled by Lawyers for Human Rights and the African Centre for Migration and Society, has revealed that South Africa is experiencing a major shift in the approach to asylum-seekers and refugees – the most significant since the asylum system was established in the 1990s. The changes amount to a...
7 February 2013
The Constitutional Court has given judgment in a case concerning the constraints placed on municipalities when entering land on which people’s homes are situated.
The applicants’ homes are situated on land owned by the Rustenburg Local Municipality. These homes were dilapidated and the municipality employed a contractor to carry out work on the land as part of a housing development...
28 January 2013
South Africa has again been gripped by images of violence, anger and looting in the wake of a decision by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Richard Baloyi and the Municipal Demarcation Board to merge two municipalities near Sasolburg in the Free State. By Thursday, four people had been reportedly killed and many more displaced after a week of violent protest against the...
28 January 2013
Stories of the daily degradation and exploitation of farm workers have burst open since the beginning of the farm worker strike in De Doorns in the Western Cape that many expect to spread to other provinces. The violation of farm workers’ rights is nothing new but the regrettable violence is a sign of growing frustration and an unwillingness to go unheard any longer.
Although farm...
25 January 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights is disappointed by statements made by Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor following today’s visit to the Lindela holding facility for immigration detention.
9 January 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights is urgently calling on the people evicted from Schubart Park in Tshwane in September 2011 to register as former residents next week.
This is the second registration period and the last chance to register. Those that fail to register and are identified as former residents will be unable to access alternative accommodation and return to their homes in the Schubart Park...
6 December 2012
North Gauteng High Court confirms the importance of confidentiality in hearings before the Refugee Appeal Board. The court also declared the 2003 Rules of the Refugee Appeal Board invalid. See attached judgment
3 December 2012
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Monday briefed Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs on the escalating number of stateless people in South Africa.
Statelessness is caused by state succession, gaps in various countries’ law (both internally and as states relate to one another), denationalisation, dual nationalities, unaccompanied minors and mixed migration, a...