Programme News
5 July 2009
(News)
South African human rights organisations on Saturday condemned the arrest of about 300 destitute Zimbabwean nationals. "We have been informed by the SAPS (South African Police Service) that the purpose of the raid was to clear the streets and enforce municipal bylaws," the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Resources Centre said in a joint statement. "Large numbers of SAPS and...
4 July 2009
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre condemn the arrest by South African Police Service, Johannesburg Metro Police Department and Pikitup of destitute Zimbabweans seeking refuge outside the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg.We have been informed by the SAPS that the purpose of the raid was to clear the streets and enforce municipal bylaws. Large numbers of SAPS and metro...
11 June 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will ask the South Gauteng High Court today (Friday) for the return of a Congolese asylum seeker who was unlawfully deported by the Department of Home Affairs from South Africa last month. LHR had previously brought an urgent application on his behalf to the court for his release from the Lindela Detention Facility only to be informed at court that he had been...
9 June 2009
(News)
Submission by the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, IDPs and Migrants at the 45th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights.
4 June 2009
(News)
AS THE grieving families of the 63 illegal miners killed in an underground fire gathered at a mortuary in Welkom to identify their loved ones yesterday, a human rights organisation slammed the "inhumane" attitude towards the dead.
The national director of Lawyers for Human Rights, advocate Jacob van Garderen, also bemoaned the fact that the illegal miners, known as zama-zamas, had to...
19 May 2009
(Press release)
In a strongly worded judgment, the North Gauteng High Court has ordered the permanent closure of the detention facility for undocumented foreign nationals on the military grounds near Musina, commonly known as "SMG".
In February 2009, LHR launched an urgent High Court application seeking an order for the closure of the facility due to a number of factors, including the extreme...
13 May 2009
(News)
A year after xenophobic violence spread across South Africa like wildfire, refugees continue to face threats of violence and authorities have done little to address the root cause of the attacks, says the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa.
The attacks that began on May 11, 2008, in Alexandra, Gauteng, spread across the country, and resulted in 62 deaths and the displacement of...
13 May 2009
(News)
MUSINA, South Africa - It's easy to miss the two girls. They are so small they seem to disappear amid the dozen Zimbabwean boys crowded around them along the trash-choked drain. Sofia Chimhangwa, a 14-year-old in a denim skirt, lies on the concrete under a filthy blanket. Her 15-year-old friend sits next to her, braiding a legless Barbie's hair. Sofia says she survives because the other girl'...
9 May 2009
(Press release)
One year after residents of Alexandra turned on their neigbours unleashing a chain of violence across the country, foreigners in South Africa face continued threats of violence. little has been done by the South African authorities to address the root causes of the violence and as a result the threats of violence against foreigners remain real.
6 May 2009
(News)
Durban - The case against eight people who allegedly killed two foreign nationals by forcing them to jump off a high rise building was postponed by the Durban Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. Durban's Albert Park councillor Vusi Khoza appeared in court briefly along with seven other people accused of murder, attempted murder and assault. The case was postponed to June 4 to give the State time to...