All Press Releases
11 October 2013
A mental health and HIV pilot project has been launched by the UNHCR in partnership with Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Torture to provide a holistic support to refugees and asylum-seekers with mental health illnesses.
The project, aiming to address the needs of people with mental health problems and improve the mental well-being of refugees in Gauteng, will...
6 September 2013
In a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal on land claims, the court today upheld the appeal of the Baphiring community of the North West.
Lawyers for Human Rights have welcomed the judgment. The Baphiring community, who bought some 7 500 hectares of land near Koster between 1908 and 1913, were forcibly removed from their land during Apartheid under the 1913 Native Land Act. The...
14 August 2013
The undersigned organisations oppose the recent complaint against the Chief Justice and regard it as ill-considered. The complaint does damage to the much-needed project of transformation in the legal profession and threatens to chill the important dialogue about sex, race, sexual orientation, and gender on the bench, at the bar and side-bar. The Chief Justice's jurisprudence while in this...
13 August 2013
An open letter calling on government to make finances available for the team representing men injured and arrested after the Marikana massacre.
We, the undersigned, call on the government to urgently make financial resources available for the legal team representing the 270 miners injured and arrested following the Marikana massacre on August 16 2012.
The failure to ensure that all interested...
25 July 2013
Judgment has been reserved in the North Gauteng High Court after hearing two days of arguments against the discriminatory targeting of foreign traders in Limpopo by police and the Department of Home Affairs.
LHR is battling a controversial police crackdown called “Operation Hardstick” that has been used to unfairly target foreign traders. The right to trade is a necessity given...
25 July 2013
On Tuesday, the North Gauteng High Court will hear arguments against the discriminatory targeting of foreign traders in Limpopo by police and the Department of Home Affairs.
In the case of Somali Association of South Africa and others v Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism and others, Lawyers for Human Rights is challenging the unlawful practice preventing...
18 July 2013
As part of this year's Public Interest Law Gathering at Wits University, Lawyers for Human Rights hosted a day-long seminar on The future of asylum in South Africa with panel discussions on the recent shifts in asylum policy, local integration and the government's decision to close and relocate urban refugee centres and the protection challenges caused by ongoing xenophobic attacks on...
17 July 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights have secured an urgent order halting the unlawful demolition of homes in the Road Reserve community in Atteridgeville by the City of Tshwane.
The case will return to the urgent court in the North Gauteng High Court on 23 July when LHR will seek to have the municipality rebuild the demolished homes and return confiscated property.
LHR first took on the case when the...
PRESS RELEASE: Court orders City of Tshwane to rebuild Bronkhorstspruit homes after illegal eviction
10 July 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights and the City of Tshwane have come to an agreement regarding the illegal eviction of over 200 families from Bronkhorstspruit last month.
It has been agreed that the City of Tshwane will rebuild the demolished homes within the next 10 days. They must also return the belongings that were confiscated during the eviction.
LHR launched an urgent application last...
3 July 2013
Amnesty International opposes attempts by Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway to forcibly return people to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and/or any other parts of south and central Somalia. The risk of human rights violations and abuses remains real in most areas of south and central Somalia, given limited government control, the significant continued presence of al- Shabab,...