Date: 15/07/2026
ISLA and LHR challenged the unlawful rejection of a Congolese survivor’s asylum claim on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict — and named what the asylum system refuses to see.
On 19 June 2026, the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) approached the Gauteng Local Division of the High Court, Pretoria, in the matter of a Congolese woman from South Kivu who survived sustained sexual violence at the hands of armed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo — and then survived it again, at the hands of border officials, in Burundi, Tanzania and Mozambique as she fled. She came to South Africa seeking protection. The asylum system told her she was not credible.
We filed on 19 June because this case could not wait. It could not wait because she had been waiting for more than two decades. And it could not wait because on that day — a day the United Nations established to bear witness to the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war — the least we could do was name what happened to her, and name what the system did with it.
THE VIOLENCE SHE FLED
She is a woman from South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — a region that has been continuously devastated by armed conflict, multiple warring factions, and the systematic use of sexual violence against civilians for more than thirty years. In South Kivu, rape is not incidental to conflict. It has been documented by the United Nations, the African Union, and international human rights bodies as a deliberate weapon of war: a tool for the destruction of communities, the breaking of families, and the subordination of women’s bodies to the logic of armed violence.
She was subjected to repeated and serious sexual violence by soldiers. The attacks were part of a broader, documented pattern of atrocity in the region. She survived. She gathered her children. And she fled — not because she chose to leave, but because remaining was incompatible with life.
The violence did not end at the border. Fleeing through a neighbouring country, she encountered border officials who subjected her to sexual exploitation as a condition of not being returned across the border. Officials who were supposed to protect displaced persons, who wore the authority of the state, instead wielded that authority to abuse a woman who had nowhere else to go. She survived that too.
“The violence I endured was not isolated but occurred within the broader pattern of abuses committed against civilians in conflict-affected areas.” — First Applicant, Founding Affidavit
WHAT THE ASYLUM SYSTEM DID NEXT
She arrived in South Africa around 2006/2007. She did not speak English. She found her way to the Department of Home Affairs in Durban, alone, and was told to come back when she had found someone to help her communicate. She came back. She told her story. She told it again at a later interview. She told it a third time, years later, before the Refugee Appeals Authority.
The Refugee Appeals Authority of South Africa upheld the rejection of her asylum claim. It concluded that her evidence was “mobile” — that it “changed from one interview to another.” It found that she had not “consistently, plausibly and credibly” established her claim. It made no finding, in any form that appears from the record, that adequately engaged with the sexual violence she experienced as a recognised form of persecution under the Refugees Act and international law. It said she was not credible.
Feminist legal scholars and international refugee law practitioners have spent decades documenting what this looks like. Survivors of sexual violence and torture frequently present inconsistent accounts — not because they are lying, but because of the neurological and psychological effects of trauma on memory and recall. An asylum seeker who experienced multiple incidents of sexual violence over an extended period, who fled her country in fear for her life, who did not speak the language of the country where she sought protection, who was interviewed without adequate gender-sensitive procedures, and who was doing so years after the events in question — that asylum seeker will present an account that is not perfectly consistent. Penalising her for that inconsistency is not neutral adjudication. It is the replication of the harm.
A SYSTEM THAT DID NOT SEE HER
The asylum system was not designed with her in mind. Its interview procedures, its credibility standards, its evidentiary frameworks, and its understanding of what a “genuine” refugee looked like were developed through the experiences of a paradigmatic refugee who is implicitly male — who fled persecution as an individual political actor, whose account was expected to be temporally precise, locationally specific, and doctrinally linear.
That framework was inadequate for the adjudication of gender-based persecution claims for reasons that were well established in both UNHCR guidance and academic literature, and which have been recognised by the CEDAW Committee in General Recommendations 32 and 33.
Gender-based persecution — including sexual violence by armed actors in conflict — constituted a recognised form of persecution under the Refugees Act. The Maputo Protocol, to which South Africa was a signatory, obliged the state to “protect asylum seeking women, refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons, against all forms of violence, rape and other forms of sexual exploitation.” The UNHCR’s Guidelines on International Protection on Gender-Related Persecution provided that decision-makers had to apply a gender-sensitive approach that accounted for the specific ways in which women experience persecution, flight, and the impact of trauma on their ability to give evidence. South Africa had not applied these frameworks to her case. It applied a credibility standard that was designed without her in mind, found her wanting, and moved to remove her.
She had since been detained at Lindela Repatriation Centre. She had been arrested at a police station on immigration grounds. She had lived with expired or unresolved documentation for years. She was residing on a farm— a temporary humanitarian arrangement established after a court order displaced her from where she had sought safety — and then faced eviction from that space too, with no clear alternative and no resolved legal status. Every piece of that chain — the flight, the interview, the rejection, the arrest, the detention, the precarity — was a continuation of the harm that began in South Kivu with soldiers who used her body as a weapon of war.
WHAT THE CASE ARGUED
ISLA and LHR asked the Court to review and set aside the decision of the Refugee Appeals Authority. We argued that the decision was unlawful under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act: it was taken in a manner that was procedurally unfair, materially influenced by errors of law, and unreasonable. We argued that the decision failed to properly assess the gender-based violence she experienced as persecution within the meaning of the Refugees Act and applicable international law. We argued that the credibility findings were made without adequate engagement with the trauma, language barriers, passage of time, and gender-specific circumstances that shaped how she was able to give evidence. We argued that the decision failed to apply the correct standard of proof.
Underlying all of this was the principle of non-refoulement: the bedrock of international refugee law, which prohibited the return of a person to a territory where their life, freedom, physical safety, or integrity would be at risk. The DRC remained a country in which conflict, sexual violence, and the targeting of civilians continued. South Kivu remained one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. Returning her there was not an administrative outcome. It was a potential death sentence.
WHY WE FILED ON 19 JUNE
The United Nations established 19 June as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict in 2015, through Resolution A/RES/69/293. The date marked the adoption, in 2008, of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 — the first Security Council resolution to have recognised sexual violence in armed conflict as a tactic of war and a threat to international peace and security. It was a day for naming what is too often unnamed. It was a day for the women whose experiences of violence were systematically disbelieved, dismissed, or treated as insufficiently legible to qualify as persecution.
We filed on 19 June because the facts of this case are inseparable from the context that that day marked. She was not a statistic. She was a woman from South Kivu who survived what that region produced — and who arrived in South Africa asking for the protection that international law guaranteed, and received instead a finding that she was not credible enough.
She was also not unique. The structural failures her case exposed — the absence of gender-sensitive asylum adjudication, the credibility trap that penalises trauma-affected survivors, the failure to recognise gender-based violence as persecution, the cycle of detention and precarity that follows a rejected claim — were experienced by countless migrant women in South Africa. ISLA’s Women in Immigration Detention programme existed because these failures were systemic, not exceptional. The 19 June filing was one case. The problem it named was much larger.
WHAT WE ASKED FOR
ISLA and LHR called on the Department of Home Affairs to:
i. Implement gender-sensitive asylum adjudication procedures across all Refugee Reception Offices and the Refugee Appeals Authority, consistent with UNHCR’s Guidelines on International Protection No. 1 and the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendations 32 and 33;
ii. Train all Refugee Status Determination Officers and members of the Refugee Appeals Authority in trauma-informed credibility assessment, with specific training on gender-based persecution and conflict-related sexual violence;
iii. Ensure that gender-based violence — including sexual violence in conflict — is consistently recognised as a form of persecution within the meaning of the Refugees Act; and
iv. Ensure that asylum seekers whose claims arise from conflict-related sexual violence are never subjected to detention, removal, or eviction from temporary shelter while their legal status remains unresolved.
FEMINIST FRAMING: THE LAW MUST SEE HER AS A WHOLE HUMAN BEING
Feminist legal analysis did not ask only whether a law is formally gender-neutral. It asked: what did the law do to women? What did it see, and what did it refuse to see? Applied to asylum law, that question was devastating. An asylum system that measures credibility against a paradigm built for male political dissenters — that expects linear, consistent, easily sequenced accounts from women who survived repeated sexual trauma, who fled under extreme duress, who did not speak the adjudicating language, who were interviewed years after events that the neurological literature tells us are stored and retrieved non-linearly — that system did not see her. It saw the inconsistency. It did not see what produced it.
Intersectionality — the analytical framework popularised by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and now embedded in South African constitutional equality jurisprudence — taught us that her vulnerability was not simply a function of being a woman. It was a function of being a Black African woman, from a conflict region, without documentation, without language, without wealth, without proximity to power. Each of these axes compounded the others. A gender-sensitive asylum system had to be capable of seeing all of them simultaneously. The current system was not.
On that day, we insisted that the law see her whole being. Not as an inconsistent witness to be disbelieved. Not as a failed asylum seeker to be deported. Not as a problem to be administered. She was a survivor of sexual violence in armed conflict. She was a mother. She was a person entitled to dignity, protection, and a genuine hearing under the Constitution and international law. She was not less credible because trauma shaped how she tells her story. She was, if anything, more in need of protection because of what she has survived — and because of what would happen to her if she was returned.
NOTE:
Certain identifying information has been withheld from this public statement to protect the safety, privacy, and dignity of the applicants. Any media coverage of this matter must not publish or broadcast information that could identify the first applicant, her children, or their current location. ISLA and LHR reserve the right to approach a court to prevent publication of identifying information that could put the applicants at risk.
For more information, contact mpho@lhr.org.za.
Ends
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Today, Lawyers for Human Rights together with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (foundation) launch their research report “The Impact and Assessment of...
Date: 17/11/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Constitutional Court hands down...
On 14 November 2022, the Constitutional Court handed down its judgment in the matter of Christine Reddell and Others v...
Date: 15/11/2022
MEDIA ALERT: New report on the state...
Lawyers for Human Rights and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung invites the media to the report launch on the findings of its...
Date: 15/11/2022
PRESS STATEMENT: LHR & Open Secrets in...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the Johannesburg High Court today, representing Open Secrets in its substitution as a...
Date: 14/11/2022
JOINT STATEMENT | Civil society group urges...
On 16 November 2022, South Africa’s human rights record will be examined for the fourth time by the United Nations...
Date: 10/11/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Class action suit against...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will be in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday, 10 November 2022, on behalf of...
Date: 10/11/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR in the Pretoria...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the North Gauteng Division of the High Court today, representing a stateless client...
Date: 27/10/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | African Civil Society Continues...
This week, United Nations member states will gather in Geneva for the 8th negotiating session dedicated to developing a treaty to...
Date: 24/10/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR in court for...
Today, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the Labour Court, Braamfontein for the matter of Caroline Sunday & Others...
Date: 20/10/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Jagersfontein Dam: The tragic...
Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) expresses its sadness and shock at the recent disastrous events that occurred at Jargersfontein. According...
Date: 14/09/2022
CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST | Regional...
This training initiative is open to all paralegals, candidate attorneys, and junior attorneys based in Southern Africa. Get expert training...
Date: 14/09/2022
CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST: Reporting on...
This training initiative is open to all print, television, online and radio journalists in Southern Africa. Get expert training to...
Date: 12/09/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR in court over...
LHR’s Statelessness Project is in the Pretoria High Court today representing a stateless person who has waited 4 years for...
Date: 06/09/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Regulatory authority’s bar on...
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are disappointed by the 2 August judgment of...
Date: 03/08/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Closing arguments in prison...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and Webber Wentzel will be back in the Johannesburg High Court at 10:00am today, Tuesday...
Date: 02/08/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Lawyers for Human Rights...
Today Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will be at the Land Claims Court bringing an application to have MAXXLiving, a...
Date: 26/07/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Rand West City Municipality...
On Tuesday 19 July 2022, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) obtained an order in the case of Thulani Mashibini vs...
Date: 21/07/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR welcomes dismissal of...
On 14 June 2022, the Johannesburg Central Magistrate’s Court dismissed criminal charges of public violence against seven workers represented by...
Date: 14/06/2022
JOINT STATEMENT | Legal Reform on employment...
Today, the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) draw...
Date: 01/06/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Informal Settlement In Laudium...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in urgent court today, 24 May 2022, defending the Nkandla Informal Settlement from another...
Date: 24/05/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | A new collaboration to...
Established in 2005, Gender Dynamix (GDX) is the first registered Africa-based public benefit organisation to focus solely on the transgender...
Date: 14/04/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Prison torture in the...
Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) and Webber Wentzel will be in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday 11 April 2022...
Date: 11/04/2022
PRESS STATEMENT| Madibeng Magistrates’ Court Dismisses an...
On 23 March 2022, the Madibeng Magistrates’ Court handed down a judgment that dismissed an eviction application brought by the...
Date: 04/04/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Victory for family unit...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcomes the order handed down on 18 March 2022 by the Johannesburg Children’s Court recognizing...
Date: 22/03/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Victory for communities as...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is proud of the outcome of the Deadly Air case, upholding communities’ constitutional right to...
Date: 22/03/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR and partners celebrate...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), in collaboration with local partners, will celebrate Human Rights Day this year with a festival...
Date: 21/03/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Pretoria Magistrates’ Court awards...
On 11 March 2022, the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court handed down its judgment in the matter of Roy Kamushinda v Minister...
Date: 15/03/2022
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Grants Liaison Attorney
Lawyers for Human Rights invites applicants to apply for an Attorney post as Grants Liaison for the LHR’s Strategic Litigation...
Date: 07/03/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | International Commission of Jurists...
Today, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, will act as amicus curiae in the...
Date: 24/02/2022
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Johannesburg Law Clinic Head
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) invites applicants to apply for an Attorney post as Head of the LHR Law Clinic...
Date: 22/02/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Rights of Black Commercial...
In 2016, ownership of the farms that were leased to different farmers, some of by the Department of Rural Development...
Date: 21/02/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | Southern Defenders to make...
On Thursday, 17 February 2022, Southern Defenders, represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, will act as amicus curiae in the...
Date: 16/02/2022
PRESS STATEMENT | High Court Victory for...
Pretoria High Court Orders a Suspension of Execution of an Eviction Order Pending the Outcome of the Leave to Appeal...
Date: 24/01/2022
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Senior Attorney, Lawyers for Human...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) seeks to appoint a Senior Attorney for its Environmental Rights Programme, based in Johannesburg.
Date: 21/01/2022
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Maintenance Officer, Pretoria
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) seeks to appoint a Maintenance Officer for its National Office, based in Pretoria. LHR is...
Date: 17/01/2022
JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT LHR IN JANUARY 2022!
There are several exciting opportunities to join the LHR team! Have a look to see if you qualify, and how...
Date: 07/01/2022
International Human Rights Day Statement : The...
As we commemorate international Human Rights Day on 10th of December 2021 let us remember the plight of children on...
Date: 10/12/2021
WHAT HAPPENS UNDERGROUND STAYS UNDERGROUND
A Study of Experiences of Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Harassment of Women Workers in the South African Mining Industry Factfinding...
Date: 03/12/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | World Children’s Day: Rising...
“Children are the soul of our society. If we fail them, then we have failed as a society.” – Judge...
Date: 20/11/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Former mine workers face...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the Middelburg High Court today, representing a largely retired or otherwise unemployed former...
Date: 26/10/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | African Civil Society Reiterates...
This week, United Nations member states will gather in Geneva for the 7th negotiating session dedicated to developing a treaty...
Date: 26/10/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Misinterpretation of Constitutional Court...
On 22 September 2021, the Constitutional Court handed down a judgment in which is declared section 10 of the Births...
Date: 29/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Victory in the Supreme...
On 19 August 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) heard arguments from Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on behalf...
Date: 28/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Supreme Court of Appeal...
On 22 September 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down two judgments in the matter Kouwenhoven v Minister...
Date: 22/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Constitutional Court affirms the...
“A surname connects us to our heritage and roots us in history and family tradition. In many African cultures, names...
Date: 22/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR goes to court...
LHR’s Land and Housing Programme is in court again for the fourteenth time this year for the case of Ventersdorp...
Date: 17/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Pretoria High Court Awards...
The Pretoria High Court has awarded refugee status to JN and KHG, represented by LHR, in two separate matters. In...
Date: 16/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Pretoria High Court Grants...
On Tuesday, 14 September 2021 the Pretoria High Court granted citizenship to Mr. Emmanuel Bukweya Ngenani, after a long battle...
Date: 15/09/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR at the Supreme...
Today, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will appear in the Supreme Court of Appeal in the matter of The Somali...
Date: 19/08/2021
STATEMENT BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN NATIONALITY NETWORK...
Statelessness is a preventable but growing phenomenon globally and in the SADC region. Statelessness across the region is primarily linked...
Date: 18/08/2021
JOINT STATEMENT | Scrapping of provisions discriminating...
Today the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), applauded...
Date: 12/08/2021
JOB OPPORTUNITY | Head of Law Clinic...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) seeks to appoint a Manager of its Law Clinic for its Refugee and Migrant Rights...
Date: 04/08/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Constitutional Court confirms that...
On 30 July 2021, the Constitutional Court handed down its judgment in the matter of Jonathan Dubula Qwelane v South...
Date: 30/07/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR speaks out about...
As a non-profit organisation dedicated to making rights real, especially for our country’s most marginalized and vulnerable communities, Lawyers for...
Date: 19/07/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Land Claims Court Grants...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has successfully represented twelve families comprising of former farmworkers in the Land Claims Court (LCC),...
Date: 15/07/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Supreme Court of Appeal...
On 21 June 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down judgment in the matter Joao Rodrigues v National...
Date: 23/06/2021
WORLD REFUGEE DAY STATEMENT | This is...
To mark World Refugee Day and Youth Month, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), The Jesuit Institute of...
Date: 20/06/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Department of Health and...
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), SECTION27 and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), organisations working and advocating the rights of refugees, asylum...
Date: 17/06/2021
YOUTH DAY STATEMENT | Let us reach...
Youth Day commemorates the uprising of the youth in South Africa as they led a revolution to end apartheid and...
Date: 16/06/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR stands with LGBTIQ+...
As we mark the half-way point in Global Pride Month, LHR calls for an end to the prejudice and discrimination...
Date: 15/06/2021
JOINT STATEMENT | ‘We stand with the...
On 3 June 2021, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and Open Secrets launched an urgent two-part application in the...
Date: 07/06/2021
JOINT STATEMENT | Child Protection Week 2021:...
As we commemorate Child Protection Week (30 May – 6 June 2021), an umbrella body comprising eight humanitarian organisations, the...
Date: 03/06/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR to Challenge Eviction...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the Middleburg High Court today, defending a group of retired mineworkers who previously...
Date: 25/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | 195 former Ekurhuleni Metro...
Following a brief postponement, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is back in the Labour Appeal Court today representing dismissed workers...
Date: 25/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Western Cape High Court...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcomes the recent order granted by the Western Cape High Court as a positive step in...
Date: 19/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | DHA announces online renewal...
Lawyers for Human Rights welcomes recent information released by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), announcing an online renewal process...
Date: 18/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR Represents UN Special...
Beginning today, the Pretoria High Court will hear a challenge to government’s longstanding failure to take meaningful steps to combat...
Date: 17/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR and Sonke Gender...
On 12 May 2021, the Western Cape High Court will hear the matter of Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town (Scalabrini)...
Date: 11/05/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Mining Host Communities in...
This week, the Pretoria High Court is hearing a review of the 2018 Mining Charter, to which a number of...
Date: 04/05/2021
JOINT STATEMENT | Hate Crime Murders –...
South Africa, it is enough. Over the past two and half months, South Africa’s LGBTIQ+ community has been rocked by...
Date: 22/04/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR briefs Portfolio Committee...
Ms. Primrose Modisane is a South African citizen by birth, however, for the past 16 years she has struggled to...
Date: 15/03/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Lawyers for Human Rights...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has received several reports from student activists regarding the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) use...
Date: 10/03/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR Launches Universal Birth...
“Universal birth registration is impossible to ignore and entirely possible to achieve.” – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, 2009 Universal birth...
Date: 05/03/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | 195 former employees of...
Today, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is in the Labour Appeal Court representing dismissed workers of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality...
Date: 23/02/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Wayne Ncube Appointed as...
Lawyers for Human Rights is delighted to announce the appointment of Wayne Ncube to the role of National Director of...
Date: 17/02/2021
Statement by the Southern African Nationality Network...
As the Covid-19 virus has spread across the world, we were all beset with fear and uncertainty that has now...
Date: 16/02/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | New LHR report looks...
Today Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) released a new report on gender and migration. The report, titled “Paper Promises”, is...
Date: 08/02/2021
PRESS STATEMENT | Constitutional Court confirms unconstitutionality...
On 4 December the Constitutional Court handed down judgment in the confirmation proceedings relating to Sonke Gender Justice / President...
Date: 07/12/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | High Court Grants interim...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcomes the judgment handed down in the Western Cape High Court interdicting and restraining the...
Date: 04/12/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | Community journalists pledge their...
On the 26th and 27th November 2020, journalists working in community radio and community print media from around South Africa...
Date: 03/12/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | South Africa’s Department of...
In 2019 the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) launched an application in the Western Cape High Court challenging the decision...
Date: 16/11/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | “South Africa belongs to...
Elizabeth was born in Lesotho to a Basotho mother and a South African father. She moved to South Africa when...
Date: 13/11/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | UN Special Rapporteur for...
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean,...
Date: 13/11/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | LHR and Sonke Gender...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will be representing Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) who have brought an application to the Court...
Date: 10/11/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | Ahmed Timol murder-accused to...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will be representing the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) who will be appearing as amicus...
Date: 05/11/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | African organisations push for...
In June 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted resolution 26/9, by which it agreed to establish an open-ended...
Date: 20/10/2020
PRESS STATEMENT | QWELANE VS SOUTH AFRICAN...
On 22 September 2020, the Constitutional Court will hear the case of Jonathan Dubula Qwelane v South African Human Rights...
Date: 21/09/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Lawyers for Human Rights to...
On Tuesday, 15 September 2020, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), in collaboration with Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and Corruption...
Date: 15/09/2020
Statelessness in a global pandemic: an old...
A statement by the Southern African Nationality Network (SANN) to the 16th Southern African Civil Society Forum.
Date: 21/08/2020
[VACANCY] LHR seeks Candidate Attorney for eThekwini...
LHR is inviting applications from law graduates with an interest in human rights law and public interest litigation to join...
Date: 31/07/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Constitutional Court settles 7-year battle...
The Constitutional Court yesterday handed down judgment in a case launched by Lawyers for Human Rights in 2016, but which...
Date: 23/07/2020
[VACANCY] LHR seeks National Director
LHR is a vibrant, 40-year old non-profit organisation offering specialist public interest legal services in key programme areas such as...
Date: 08/07/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Residents of Industry House &...
On 29 June 2020, the High Court in Johannesburg declared section 13 (7) (c) of the South African Police Services...
Date: 01/07/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] On World Refugee Day, LHR...
As we commemorate world refugee day it is important to uphold the fundamental rights of foreign nationals as equal to...
Date: 20/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Urgent Litigation on Covid-19 Social...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) supports the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Towns’ urgent litigation to include asylum seekers and special...
Date: 17/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] UN Special Rapporteur Applies to...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is representing the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating...
Date: 15/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Agreement reached between the Lesetlheng...
This agreement is a significant milestone following protracted litigation and ongoing negotiations between the Lesetlheng community and Pilanesberg Platinum Mine.
Date: 11/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Fighting For Fatherhood In South...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), representing the Centre for Child Law (CCL), yesterday filed an application with the Constitutional Court...
Date: 10/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Lawyers for Human Rights Releases...
On Friday, 12 June 2020, via webinar, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will launch its report, “Monitoring Policy, Litigious and...
Date: 09/06/2020
Joint Statement on Child Protection Week: Protecting...
The World Health Organisation describes COVID-19 pandemic as having a devastating impact across the world. Although governments are commended for...
Date: 03/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] Supreme Court of Appeal upholds...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcomes the judgment handed down in the Supreme Court of Appeal on 29 May 2019,...
Date: 01/06/2020
[PRESS STATEMENT] TERS extended to workers not...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcome the amendments to the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) which extend the definition...
Date: 27/05/2020
Joint Statement: In Solidarity with the Stateless
An urgent call to states, donors and other stakeholders to promote and protect the rights of stateless persons in their...
Date: 27/05/2020
LHR Launches Constitutional Challenge on Behalf of...
Lawyers for Human Rights has launched an urgent application on behalf of informal waste reclaimers in Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, seeking...
Date: 26/05/2020
Lawyers for Human Rights Celebrates Africa Day:...
Today, the 25th of May 2020, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) celebrates Africa Day. Africa Day is an annual commemoration...
Date: 25/05/2020
High Court rules unmarried fathers can register...
Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) welcomes the judgment handed on 19 May 2020 by Rugunanan J of the Makhanda High...
Date: 24/05/2020
Marievale Community Successfully Fights Illegal Eviction by...
In an urgent court hearing yesterday night, Lawyers for Human Rights again successfully defended the Marievale community, a small village...
Date: 22/05/2020
Strandfontein Homeless Action Committee v City of...
It is with regret that Lawyers for Human Rights announces that it has withdrawn as the attorneys of record for...
Date: 21/05/2020
Strandfontein Homeless Committee Takes on City of...
On Monday 18 May 2020, the Strandfontein Homeless Action Committee (SHAC), represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, initiated legal proceedings...
Date: 19/05/2020
Joint Statement on Workers Day 2020
A joint statement by the Universal Rights Association, Africa Diaspora Forum, the Consortium for Refugees & Migrants in South Africa,...
Date: 01/05/2020
High Court declares parts of the new...
In the matter of Lawyers for Human Rights and Others v Minister of Home Affairs and others, LHR acting in...
Date: 01/01/2003
Lawyers for Human Rights wins landmark decision...
Lawyers for Human Rights won a landmark case against the Department of Home Affairs and the Airports Company of South...
Date: 01/01/2002
Refugee rights dropped from world racism conference
Following the controversial debate surrounding reparations, the Geneva preparatory meeting of the UN World Conference Against Racism has recently decided...
Date: 01/01/2001
Human rights group plan court action over...
HUMAN rights lawyers are threatening legal action against the home affairs department for ordering border posts to turn back asylum-seekers...
Date: 01/01/2001
Die Okkupeerder: a Resource Manual for Eviction...
At the end of May 1999, the Security of Farm Workers Project launched a booklet called “Die Okkupeerder: A resource...
Date: 31/05/1999
LHR to Challenge Discriminatory Impact of COVID-19...
Lawyers for Human Rights will appear before the Pretoria High Court today on behalf of five groups of informal waste...
Date: 07/04/2020
NIAWG Advocacy Statement on COVID-19 and vulnerable...
The NIAWG calls on all concerned stakeholders and authorities to make every effort to prevent any form of harm and...
Date: 08/04/2020
LEGAL SUPPORT HOTLINE DURING #LOCKDOWNSA
Public Interest Law organisations working together, to make sure human rights are respected and protected during the COVID19 lock-down in...
Date: 31/03/2020
LHR’s Human Rights Day Statement
On this Human Rights Day, amidst the growing COVID-19 threat, Lawyers for Human Rights calls on all in South Africa...
Date: 21/03/2020
LHR Responds to COVID-19
On Sunday, 15 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak....
Date: 16/03/2020
Constitutional Court rules president’s suspension of SADC...
Lawyers for Human Rights welcomes the Constitutional Court’s judgement, handed down yesterday, 11 December 2018, in the matter of Law Society...
Date: 12/12/2018
Urgent appeal to support LHR client after...
Lawyers for Human Rights is making an urgent appeal for assistance after a recent judgement by the Johannesburg High Court,...
Date: 21/10/2019
Supreme Court of Appeal secures the right...
LHR welcomes the judgment handed down by Maya P in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday, 8 July 2019,...
Date: 08/07/2019
Sexual offences courts critical in the fight...
Organisations in the gender-based violence sector were shocked to learn that the Department of Justice intends to investigate the possibility...
Date: 15/05/2017
Police failure to assist complainants in terms...
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is deeply unsatisfied with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Civilian Secretariat for Police...
Date: 30/09/2017
LHR rejects normalisation of violence against women
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is shocked to learn that Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Mduduzi Manana, allegedly assaulted two...
Date: 07/08/2017
#NotOurLeaders campaign launched during 16 days of...
#NotOurLeaders Campaing launched by Women and Democracy Initiative, Lawyers for Human Rights and gender violence specialist during 16 Days of...
Date: 24/11/2017
No more time limit to prosecute sexual...
On Thursday 14 June 2018, the South African Constitutional Court (Court) issued an unanimous judgment confirming that there will be...
Date: 15/06/2018
LHR supports #TheTotalShutDown
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) supports #TheTotalShutDown, the national intersectional womxn’s march against gender based violence. All LHR women and...
Date: 01/08/2018
#NotOurLeaders
Equality Court to hear case on the...
On 26 November 2018, the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will appear in the Cape High Court, sitting as an...
Date: 25/11/2018
LHR on announcement that there is no...
On Monday, 2 September, the South African government on Twitter called on women to “speak out”, and “not allow themselves...
Date: 03/09/2019
Victory for Jade September and the transgender...
On Monday 23 September 2019, the Equality Court in the Western Cape handed down judgment in the matter of September...
Date: 23/09/2019
Judgment in the case of J September
Lawyers for Human Rights, the Legal Resources Centre, and Gender Dynamix cordially invite you to a press conference, on judgment...
Date: 16/09/2019
African organisations push for binding treaty on...
As part of the latest round of negotiations on the U.N. Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises...
Date: 01/10/2019
Marievale Community in court today to fight...
In November and December 2017 members of the SANDF stormed into the homes of about 150 families residing in a...
Date: 17/04/2018
Mayor of Lusikisiki for contempt of a...
15 April 2018 — On Friday, 13 April 2018, the New Rest community witnessed justice in action when the Mayor...
Date: 15/04/2018
Victory for the homeless
LHR represents a group of homeless people who reside at Prince’s Park, on the corner of Prince’s Park Road and...
Date: 03/04/2018
Mr Godfrey Mtenje and his family fight...
The matter of Mr Godfrey Mtenje will continue be heard in the Land Claims Court of South Africa on the...
Date: 19/03/2018
Victory for mining host communities in 2017...
This morning, the Pretoria High Court postponed the judicial review of the Mining Charter published last year by Minister of...
Date: 19/02/2018
LHR notes the statements released by the...
LHR notes the statements released by the Chamber of Mines and the Department of Mineral Resources regarding postponement of the...
Date: 19/02/2018
Mining host communities in court to challenge...
Beginning tomorrow, four mining affected communities represented by Lawyers for Human Rights will be in the Pretoria High Court to...
Date: 18/02/2018
In memory of Rudolph Jansen
Long-time human rights lawyer, Rudolph Jansen, who fought against injustice on behalf of the poor and marginalized for over three...
Date: 27/11/2017
LHR is delighted that the Pretoria High...
LHR is delighted that the Pretoria High Court today ruled that four of its clients, should be allowed to intervene...
Date: 14/11/2017
Mary Rahube // Hedsrine Rahube & others...
Today, the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria handed down judgment in the case of Mary Rahube, a...
Date: 26/09/2017
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