Programme News
25 July 2018
(Press release)
On Thursday 26 July 2018, the Constitutional Court will hand down judgment in the matter of Assign Services v NUMSA and Others, a matter dealing with the proper interpretation of section 198A(3)(b)(i) (the “deeming provision”) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1996 (LRA). Section 198A was one of several amendments made to the LRA in 2014, which aimed at providing protection to...
24 July 2018
(Press release)
24 July 2018
Yesterday the Department of Home Affairs finally registered an 18 month old baby under pressure of a Children’s Court order.
Baby Senelile* was found in a field in Pretoria soon after birth. There were no clues about who her parents were. Despite being a clearly abandoned and vulnerable foundling child, the Department of Home Affairs refused the social worker...
17 July 2018
(Press release)
17 July 2018
Watch our short explainer video here.
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
(Press release)
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...
29 June 2018
(News)
The Lawyers for Human Rights’ Refugee and Migrant Rights Program is looking for law graduates or paralegals to assist as interns in the Johannesburg law clinic in Braamfontein as well as our clinic in Pretoria. Our interns assist with various support activities including client interaction and communication, legal correspondence and submissions, as well as administrative support...
29 June 2018
(News)
On a yearly basis, the Mail & Guardian publishes a list of 200 exceptional and notable South Africans under the age of 35 in its “200 Young South Africans” list. This year, we are proud as Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to have two of our colleagues, Carol Mohlala (Media and Communications Manager) and Liesl Muller (Attorney and Head of Statelessness Project)...
26 June 2018
(Press release)
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
(Press release)
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...
4 June 2018
(News)
LHR hosted a workshop on mine closures, their impacts on affected communities, and strategies for community responses. The workshop is organised and will be facilitated by Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) and the International Federation for Human Rights (“FIDH”) for communities affected by recent mine closures or likely to be so affected by the recent announcements of...
23 May 2018
(Press release)
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...