Programme News
23 February 2009
(News)
IT HAS been nine months since a wave of xenophobic attacks swept across the country leaving 62 people dead in its wake. To date less than a tenth of the more than 1400 people arrested for the horrific crimes are behind bars.Civil rights groups maintain that the National Prosecuting Authority is not making enough progress in the prosecution of the suspects.
NPA spokesman Tlali...
18 February 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights condemns the arrests of Roy Bennett, MDC Treasurer-General and deputy Minister of Agriculture designate. Bennett has apparently been charged under section 61 of the repressive Public Order and Security Act: conspiring to acquire arms with a view to disrupting essential services.
We further condemn the arrests of human rights lawyers Tawanda Zhuwarara and Rose Hanzi of ...
10 February 2009
(News)
Lawyers fight to improve refugee facility
By Zelda Venter
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are to approach the Pretoria High Court in a bid to force the government to improve conditions at a holding facility for refugees in Musina, or have it closed down. This follows the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe, which has since spread to Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. It is claimed conditions at the...
9 February 2009
(Press release)
MEDIA RELEASE - 9 FEBRUARY 2009
LHR has lodged an urgent High Court application challenging the legality and conditions of the Soutpansberg Military Grounds detention centre in Musina. Further, the application challenges the blatant violation of the constitutional provision against the detention of children.
In contravention of the Immigration Act, the detention centre, commonly known as...
6 February 2009
(Press release)
06 February 2009
We, the undersigned organizations, are extremely concerned about the treatment of over a thousand Rohingyas from Burma and migrants from Bangladesh who have been forcibly expelled and abandoned in international waters by the Thai security forces since December 2008.
Over the past few weeks, several boats have been rescued off the coasts of Indonesia and the Andaman Islands of...
5 February 2009
(News)
January 24, 2009
By BARRY BEARAK
MUSINA, South Africa - They bear the look of street urchins, their eyes on the prowl for useful scraps of garbage and their bodies covered in clothes no cleaner than a mechanic's rags.
Near midnight, these Zimbabwean children can be found sleeping outside almost anywhere in this border city. A 12-year-old girl named No Matter Hungwe, hunched beneath the...
13 January 2009
(Press release)
Johannesburg - Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) strongly condemns Israel's aggressive military action in Gaza and supports recent statements by the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) that call for independent investigations into alleged violations of international humanitarian law. The UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has...
9 January 2009
(News)
Police say Albert Park ward councillor Vusi Khoza was arrested, apparently in connection with the robbery and assault of a man who lives in the area.He was arrested after it was alleged that he had accused a man of stealing a local woman's cellphone, according to police. The incident took place on Saturday, a day before locals attacked foreign nationals in the building.
Police spokesperson...
8 January 2009
(News)
Staff Writer
NO ARRESTS have been made in the attacks on foreigners in Durban at the weekend, despite alleged perpetrators being pointed out and CCTV footage clearly identifying them, Sherylle Dass of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) said yesterday.
Dass said allegations were also made that members of the local Community Policing Forum (CPF) and African National Congress ward councillor Vusi...
10 December 2008
(Press release)
Countries around the world must uphold the human rights of the estimated 1 million people held in immigration detention around the world and work to develop community-based alternatives, the International Coalition on the Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants (IDC) said today, International Human Rights Day.
The IDC call comes following the findings of their recent global survey...