Programme News
15 February 2012
(News)
The inaugural meeting of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (the Committee) saw the induction of the Committee’s ten new members, and launched discussion on the body’s programme of work and rules of procedure. The session took place in Geneva from 8 to 11 November 2011, when meetings were held with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), State Parties,1 and with the Human Rights...
15 February 2012
(News)
Johannesburg - The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum (ZEF) have launched a landmark case in the North Gauteng High Court to compel South Africa to abide by its legal obligations to investigate and prosecute high level Zimbabwean officials accused of crimes against humanity.
SALC and ZEF are asking the...
14 February 2012
(News)
MUSINA, 14 February 2012 (IRIN) - Four months ago, Clemence Uzizo, 21, a welder living in Soweto, Johannesburg's most populous suburb, made the mistake of venturing out to a local shop without his asylum-seeker permit. Neither the police who arrested him, nor the immigration officials who detained him, verified Uzizo's legal status before deporting him to Zimbabwe, the country of his birth....
9 February 2012
(Press release)
The High Court in Port Elizabeth today heard legal arguments regarding the lawfulness of the closure of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office (“PE RRO”). The office was closed to new asylum seekers on 21 October 2011 after only one day’s notice to local service providers and the refugee community.
The PE RRO has been open since the coming into operation of the...
9 February 2012
(Press release)
LHR welcomes the decision by the Constitutional court to dismiss an application for leave to appeal brought by the Department of Home Affairs. In a 2011 Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decision which dealt with the protection of newly arrived asylum seekers, the SCA held that asylum seekers cannot be prevented from applying for asylum after being arrested. Once a person has declared their...
23 January 2012
(News)
Asylum-seekers entering South Africa are no longer being issued with the necessary documents to apply for refugee status. Without a so-called section 23 permit, they are being turned away from Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) and denied the opportunity to legalize their stay in the country.
“We keep coming back here but they won’t help us without those papers,” said Abdul, a...
20 January 2012
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has noted the Department of Home Affairs’ continued efforts to unlawfully prevent refugees from submitting applications for asylum at the country’s refugee reception offices. In terms of a recent policy change, new applicants for asylum will be required to produce an Asylum Transit Permit, which should be available at border posts, when they...
12 January 2012
(News)
The Constitutional Court has ruled that parents of children who have been removed from their care by the state will now have access to an automatic review of that decision.
Child rights advocates say this will help fill a "lacuna" or loophole in the Children's Act that has in the past made it difficult for disenfranchised families to challenge state officials who have wrongfully...
22 December 2011
(News)
The Constitutional Court is to be asked to shed some legal certainty on the question whether our government can deport “undesirable” people facing a possible death penalty if sent back to the country from which they fled. Home Affairs will ask the court to review a Johannesburg High Court order which earlier this year ruled that the minister of home affairs may not deport...
14 December 2011
(Press release)
The North Gauteng High Court has handed down judgment today setting aside Department of Home Affairs' decision not to open a refugee reception office in Johannesburg and directing the Director-General to reconsider his decision.
Lawyers for Human Rights was representing the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants and the Coordinating Body of the Refugee Communities. These groups challenged...