Programme News
29 June 2017
(Press release)
29 June 2017
The Constitutional Court handed down a historic decision today in the matter of Lawyers for Human Rights v. Minister of Home Affairs and others; the Court unanimously found that sections 34(1)(b) and (d) of the Immigration Act are inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid. The Court ruled that the rights guaranteed in section 12 and 35 of the South African...
28 June 2017
(Press release)
28 June 2017
Judgment will be handed down tomorrow morning by the Constitutional Court in the matter of Lawyers for Human Rights v. Minister of Home Affairs and others. In the case, which was heard in March, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) charged that section 34 of the Immigration Act does not sufficiently protect the right of those detained for immigration irregularities to present...
21 June 2017
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is deeply unsatisfied with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Civilian Secretariat for Police reports on police compliance with the Domestic Violence Act, presented in the Portfolio Committee on Police in Parliament today. The Minister of Police has stated that domestic violence is a SAPS priority, but today’s reports do not bear that out....
20 June 2017
(Press release)
Today (20 June 2017), on World Refugee Day, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) successfully fought for the freedom of a Syrian refugee who had been detained on the basis of a fraudulent asylum permit since late May. The lawyers charged that the Applicant’s detention was wrong in both substance and procedure, as he had not been charged with any crime or been allowed to exercise his right to...
18 June 2017
(Press release)
On World Refugee Day, 20 June 2017, the Gauteng Provincial High Court in Pretoria will hear legal arguments by the Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) through their legal representative, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in an attempt to address the current crisis of quality refugee ajudication at the Refugee Appeal Board (RAB).
It is contended that the RAB judgments reflect a...
30 May 2017
(Press release)
In 2013 Anglo American served 34 families with notices of eviction. These families were given two months to vacate homes that they have been occupying, for some families since 1976. Anglo American, did so without considering that these families maybe rendered homeless.
The mining company has argued that they do not own the houses occupied by these families but lease them from Eskom. Since...
25 May 2017
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights stands in solidarity with its civil society peers in condemning efforts by a subsidiary of Australian mining company Minerals Commodities Limited (MRC) to silence criticism of its controversial plans to mine mineral sands at Xolobeni on South Africa’s Wild Coast.
Defamation lawsuits filed this month by MRC against two attorneys at the Centre for...
18 May 2017
(Press release)
Last week states from around the world gathered to review South Africa on its human rights situation. This process is called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and all states are reviewed once every 5 years by their fellow states. The recommendations made by states are aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground. Although every state has only 2 or 3 recommendations, this year 12...
18 May 2017
(Press release)
Organisations in the gender-based violence sector were shocked to learn that the Department of Justice intends to investigate the possibility of reducing resources provided to sexual offences courts. This announcement was made during the Deputy Minister of Justice’s keynote address at the launch of the Thembalethu Sexual Offences Court in George, on 15 May 2017.
Sexual...
28 April 2017
(Press release)
PRESS RELEASE
28 April 2017
Contacts: Leeanne Torpey (ltorpey [at] idcoaltion [dot] org +61 404146117) Junita Calder (jcalder [at] idcoalition [dot] org)
JOHANNESBURG: An international report on Alternatives to Immigration Detention in Africa will be launched in Johannesburg today, 11am at Constitution Hill, marking Freedom Day.
The International Detention Coalition (IDC) report...