Programme News
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...
8 March 2012
(News)
The Protection of State Information Bill: Is the ‘liberator’ crossing the floor?
By Lesirela Letsebe
The democratic South African government has aroused a huge outcry by introducing the Protection of State Information Bill (B6 of 2010), which some media have likened to the ‘draconian’ apartheid era Internal Security Act 74 of 1982 with its stated object: ‘To provide...
15 December 2011
(News)
In recent months the judiciary has come under attack for being anti-transformative. Yet the Constitutional Court’s most recent judgments reveal its true transformative credentials. They also reveal the transformative potential of the judiciary generally. The violent dispossession wrought by colonialism and apartheid left millions of people without secure access to land. We continue to...
6 December 2011
(Press release)
Today the Constitutional Court handed down a unanimous judgment in the matter of Nthabiseng Pheko and the Occupiers of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement versus the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The Court found that the actions of the Municipality, in forcibly removing the residents of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement and demolishing their homes without a Court order, allegedly as a...
15 November 2011
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is a leading human rights organisation with a 30 year track record of human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. We offer lawyers an exciting and challenging work environment covering a wide range of human rights work, which includes refugee and migrant rights, land reform and housing, security of farm workers, child rights and...
14 September 2011
(Press release)
On Thursday, 15 September 2011 the Constitutional Court will hear the direct appeal of Nthabiseng Pheko and the Occupiers of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement and the Ekhuruleni Municipality. LHR has brought this appeal on behalf of the residents of this informal settlement who were forcibly removed in terms of disaster management legislation avoiding the protections against evictions which...
8 September 2011
(News)
BACKYARDERS who have spent winter in tents on city-owned land in Mitchell’s Plain say they would rather live on an exposed field than go to Blikkiesdorp where the city intends to move them.
The sentiment was expressed by backyarders standing outside the Cape High Court on Tuesday last week as Judge Nathan Erasmus heard their appeal brought by Lawyers for Human Rights – against an...
30 August 2011
(News)
Evictions are always a prickly issue and the case due before the Constitutional Court next month is no different.The matter comes weeks after the court reserved judg ment in another case, in which it has to decide whether the City of Johannesburg is responsible for providing temporary housing to residents who have been evicted from buildings that they had occupied illegally.
In March this...
9 July 2011
(Press release)
LHR seeks to fill the following vacancies:
Attorney: Pretoria
The Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme seeks a self-motivated admitted attorney with an interest in constitutional and public interest litigation. Good writing and research skills are essential. High Court litigation experience would be an advantage. This is an opportunity to get exposure to international law, work with United...
24 May 2011
(News)
The City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit established to prevent the illegal occupation of city and provincial land, is acting unlawfully says Lawyers for Human Rights.
LHR lawyer Sheldon Magardie said the unit demolished structures without a court order and he was planning to approach the Cape High Court for an interdict to prevent the city from doing so.
“In our view, the city...