Lawyers for Human Rights
Lawyers for Human Rights is an independent human rights organisation with a thirty-year track record of human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. LHR uses the law as a positive instrument for change and to deepen the democratisation of the South African society. To this end, it provides free legal services to vulnerable, marginalised and indigent individuals and communities, both non-national and South African, who are victims of unlawful infringements of their Constitutional rights.
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Features
Latest news and press releases
27 August 2010
(Press release)
On Monday, 23 August 2010, a contingent of officials from the Khara Hais Municipality accompanied by security guards and members of the SAPS arrived at New Heaven informal settlement in Paballelo, Upington. The municipal officials proceeded to tear down and demolish approximately ten shacks which had been erected and were occupied by desperately poor people including households headed by women,...
25 August 2010
(Press release)
Press Release - 25 August 2010
The advent of the removal of children begging in the streets in Tshwane, some accompanying adults has the public raging with dissent. Jo’burg Child Welfare (JCW) has the following comments on this issue:
“We note that such children are exposed to a great many hazards and that there is an urgent need for intervention to improve their...
24 August 2010
(News)
By Simon Mundy in Kya Sands
Bright Magomora took no chances when a crowd gathered outside his small shop, hammering on the walls with sticks and shouting that he should go home to Zimbabwe.
"I ran away," says Mr Magomora, who had spent five years in the South African shanty town of Kya Sands, north of Johannesburg. "They wanted to beat me up or kill me, saying that we foreigners...
22 August 2010
(News)
Daar is nuwe hoop vir die blinde Zimbabwiese vrou wie se baba deur wetstoepassers uit haar arms geruk is terwyl sy op ’n straathoek gebedel het. Die beeldmateriaal van die getraumatiseerde vrou en haar huilende baba (18 maande) het lesers die afgelope week aangegryp en fel kritiek van menseregtegroepe ontlok. Die vrou se ander kind (4) is ook by haar afgeneem.
Rapport het gister...
19 August 2010
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Centre for Child Law (CCL) at the University of Pretoria will approach the North Gauteng High Court today at 14:00 to seek an urgent order for the release of three children from unlawful custody by state officials, most notably from the Department of Social Development (DSD).
On a terrifying Friday 13 August 2010, several state agencies including the...
12 August 2010
(News)
The squatters' shacks were burnt down by the Tshwane Metro Police on July 21. With the assistance of Lawyers for Human Rights, the squatters took the council to court.
Acting Pretoria high court judge Jody Kollapen ordered the municipality to erect temporary shelter for the squatters. Judge Kollapen ruled against the municipality's plan to move the squatters to a site in Struben Street, near...
12 August 2010
(News)
The cemetery land also serves as a football ground for the squatters. A slimy nearby pond, which oozes green fungi sludge is used by the squatters as a laundry.
"Our biggest fear is the rainy season because the tents will be flooded," Michael Furanji said as he washed his clothes in the pond.
The camp is littered with the burnt-out remains of what used to be the squatters'...
24 July 2010
(News)
Pretoria - Moving a group of illegal Moreleta Park squatters to the other side of Pretoria would amount to an illegal eviction, Acting Judge Jody Kollapen told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Kollapen refused to allow the Tshwane municipality to temporarily move the group of over 300 squatters to a building in Strueben Street in the West of Pretoria.
He gave the municipality...
22 July 2010
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) will be approaching the High Court today at 14h00 on an urgent basis to seek an order requiring the Tshwane Municipality to immediately supply temporary shelter for the victims of an unlawful and inhumane eviction which took place yesterday, 21 July 2010.
On 21 July 2010 the Tshwane Municipality destroyed 80 shacks in Pretoria East next to the...
22 July 2010
(News)
Opinion I By Loren B Landau and Tara Polzer I Those who heard the dog bite remember its bite.
Over the past two weeks, those same people have seen World Cup fever give way to a feverish effort to prevent the forthcoming melee. No one has been readying themselves more fervently than migrants, many of whom have made their way to safety either in South Africa or beyond its borders. Some, who...
