All Press Releases
17 July 2018
17 July 2018
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Hundreds of children are forced into undocumented lives and denied their basic rights due to their parents’ documentation status. The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre call for the South African government to amend regulations around birth registration to ensure that a child’s...
16 July 2018
16 July 2018
On 12 July 2018, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria handed down judgement in the matter of FNM v the Refugee Appeal Board and Others (Case number 71738/2016), in which Dodson AJ sets out a scathing indictment of the quality of administrative decision-making in South Africa’s asylum seeker process.
The applicant in this matter is an asylum seeker who fled from the...
26 June 2018
It is with the greatest concern that Lawyers for Human Rights notes the intention of the Dawid Kruiper Municipality to illegally evict 16 Congolese and Burundian foreign nationals from their current place of safety – a shelter that the Municipality had provided for them. The foreign nationals are victims of xenophobic attacks that occurred in Mapoteng Kathu on the 26th June 2018 which...
19 June 2018
Johannesburg, Paris, 15 June 2018
On Thursday 14 June 2018, the South African Constitutional Court (Court) issued an unanimous judgment confirming that there will be no more timelimit in which to institute a criminal prosecution for any sexual offence in South Africa, regardless of how long ago it was committed, or whether the survivor was a child or adult. Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and...
23 May 2018
LHR represents the Lesethleng Village Community in an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court against an eviction order granted by the North West High Court in favour of Pilanesburg Platinum Mine (PPM).
Over a century ago in 1916, thirteen families in the Lesethleng Village Community decided to buy the farm Wilgespruit (“Modimo Mmalo”) in the district...
17 May 2018
17 May 2018
Today the 17th of May 2018 Lawyers for Human Rights will appear in the constitutional court to confirm the High Court judgment granted on the 26th of September 2017 in the case of Mantshabelle Mary Rahube.
The High Court held that Section 2(1) of ULTRA is constitutionally invalid insofar as it automatically converted holders of land...
15 May 2018
On Tuesday, the 15th of May 2018, the Constitutional Court of South Africa will hear arguments pertaining to the Immigration Directive 21 of 2015 (“Directive 21”). Accordingly, Lawyers for Human Rights have been admitted as amicus curiae to put forth submissions that Directive 21 is unlawful and invalid.
Directive 21 very explicitly and unmistakably bars asylum seekers, in...
10 May 2018
Lawyers for Human Rights is pleased with the judgment handed down by Judge N Davis in the Pretoria High Court on 9 May 2018 concerning the unlawful eviction of the residents of Marievale by members of SANDF.
Late last year leading into the festive season, members of SANDF stormed in the homes of about 150 families residing in a small village known as Marievale and evicted them in the most...
2 May 2018
LHR is back in court today for the hearing of an urgent application launched against the Minister of Defence and Millitary Veterans and SANDF on behalf of residents of Marievale who were illegally evicted from their homes in November and December 2017.
Late last year leading into the festive season, members of SANDF stormed into the homes of about 150 families residing in a small village...
17 April 2018
17 April 2018
In November and December 2017 members of the South African Defence Force stormed into the homes of about 150 families residing in a small village known as Marievale and evicted them in the most violent manner. This was an illegal eviction carried out in the absence of a court order.
Marievale was a military base formerly occupied by members of the military. However, as the...