Programme News
22 March 2012
(News)
Mary Chombo was born in SA to a South African-born mother and a Malawian father. But as her birth was never registered in this country and she left for Malawi with her parents when she was little, she is now persona non grata in SA.
She moved back here with her four children after her husband died, but her efforts to be recognised as South African have fallen on deaf ears.
“Home Affairs...
22 March 2012
(News)
“I only have a face, I have no identity or nationality. I have no idea what to call myself. I just want to belong somewhere.”
This is the plight of a 20-year-old man, identified only as Adelin, who is a stateless person trying to make a living to support himself. But this is impossible, as no country recognises him as a citizen.
Adelin was born on February 14, 1992, in a refugee camp...
22 March 2012
(News)
The country marked Human Rights Day yesterday, but for some people who are stateless in SA there was little to celebrate.
These people who are not recognised as a national by any state are invisible. They do not exist before the State.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) started a Statelessness Project last March, devoted to providing legal assistance to people who are not recognised as a national in...
20 March 2012
(Press release)
Children do not belong in detention!
Global report and campaign to end immigration detention of children to be launched at UN Human Rights Council
this press release is embargoed until 21 March 2012
Johannesburg 19th March 2012: Every day, around the world, thousands of children, many of them unaccompanied minors, are deprived of their freedom and are locked up simply because they do not...
12 March 2012
(News)
Foreigners who own spaza shops and other businesses may soon be subject to by-laws that could be stricter than their South African counterparts, according to a report on Saturday. In the African National Congress's peace and stability policy discussion document, the ruling party proposes that non-South Africans should not run spaza shops without adhering to certain legislated...
12 March 2012
(News)
In a policy discussion document the ANC has proposed tighter management of immigration. The ruling party proposes a clampdown on informal businesses owned by refugees and asylum seekers, in particular those that contravene municipal by-laws.
An ANC policy document proposing new measures to manage asylum seekers has sparked an outcry from human rights bodies and migrant communities who...
12 March 2012
(News)
GE.11- 17506
Human Rights Council
Nineteenth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret...
9 March 2012
(News)
In a victory both moral and diplomatic, South Africa took the lead this week during the first debate at the United Nations on the rights of sexual minorities. The country positioned itself firmly as a global leader in the protection of the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people and played a key role in preventing a walkout of other African states. South Africa was supported by...
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....
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...