Programme News
18 March 2015
(Press release)
The Angolan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release two human rights defenders who were detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the country’s Cabinda region, five organizations including Amnesty International said today.
Jose Marcos Mavungo was arrested on 14 March 2015 – the day of the planned protest - and...
17 March 2015
(Press release)
The online application for ZSPs closed on 31 December 2014. The process of booking online will close on 30 April 2015. DHA has anticipated that the project to adjudicate and issue these permits will close in July 2015.
13 March 2015
(Press release)
In a landmark victory for rural occupiers, the City of Tshwane has taken a decision to expropriate land being used for the Kanana Village in Pretoria.
The decision means that roughly 500 households living on the farm will not be evicted and will eventually obtain tenure security for the houses they have lived in for more than 10 years.
The Kanana Village was formed when evicted farm workers...
12 March 2015
(News)
In a precedent-setting case, the Pretoria High Court has given asylum seekers the right to challenge a fine imposed on them.
The court yesterday heard an urgent application by Janvier Mutoshiwa, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) asked the court to compel the Department of Home Affairs to allow him to contest his fine.
Up...
12 March 2015
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights appeared in the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday on behalf of a number of separated minors to deal with access to education and documentation for this vulnerable group.
An interim order was granted in 2013 guaranteeing asylum seeker and refugee children access to education. The second part of the case was aimed at developing a path to documentation by recognising...
6 March 2015
(News)
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the South African NGO Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Mozambican Mine Workers Association (AMIMO) are working together to find sustainable solutions for migrant mineworkers and their families to access the social security benefits they are entitled, including healthcare, pension schemes and worker compensation.
There are a range of...
5 March 2015
(Press release)
The North Gauteng High Court has dismissed a rescission application brought by the Tshwane University of Technology against a contempt order obtained by Lawyers for Human Rights in 2014.
LHR is acting on behalf of evicted students.
LHR launched the contempt application after TUT failed to comply with an urgent order to allow students back into residences from which they had been unlawfully...
5 March 2015
(News)
This week Urban Joburg and CityAfrika hosted an open discussion on the City of Johannesburg’s Operation KeMalao ‘It’s the law’. The by-law enforcement operation triggered by the City’s Public Safety office targets all traders and beggars operating at traffic intersections.
Ke Molao follows on from the department’s previously notorious operation Clean Sweep,...
5 March 2015
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights have urged the National Department of Health to ensure that staff at all hospitals are properly trained on the law around foreign nationals who need treatment in South Africa.
It’s made the appeal after officials at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg turned away a woman in need of urgent medical care, allegedly because she's a foreigner.
Eyewitness News...
4 March 2015
(News)
Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has condemned an instruction to foreigners by the SA Civic Organisation (Sanco) to leave Snake Park in Soweto.
Sanco has reportedly sent a letter to residents saying foreign-owned shops will be closed. But Zulu says Sanco has not right to instruct foreigners to leave.
The minister confirms that her office is engaging with the community, adding that...