All Press Releases
26 June 2013
NGO Statement on International Protection
Extended Written Version
Agenda Item 3(a)
A. Thematic Concerns...................................................................................................... 3
1. Refugees.............................................................................................................................................................. 3
(i)...
24 June 2013
The Rohingya, a stateless minority of Myanmar, have endured decades of abuse, persecution and discrimination. One year ago, on 3 June 2012, the massacre of ten Muslims travelling in Rakhine State, following the killing and reported rape of a Buddhist woman, marked the beginning of a series of violent attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslim communities. The violence of June and October 2012...
21 June 2013
As part of the End Child Detention Campaign and in commemoration of World Refugee Day on 20 June, Lawyers for Human Rights in association with the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa and the African Centre for Migration and Society will on Friday, 21 June, host the screening of the Invisible Picture Show which documents concerns about children in detention centres. The...
20 June 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights on Thursday, 20 June 2013, scored a hard-fought victory in the case challenging the closure of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office in the Eastern Cape High Court.
The judge has ordered that the reception office be fully functional by 1 October 2013.
LHR and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Refugee Rights Centre challenged the closure - the...
7 June 2013
The recent attacks against foreign nationals, particularly those operating shops in townships and informal settlements, have sent shivers down the spines of many in South Africa and across the continent. It has been five years since coordinated attacks exploded across the country and led to the deaths of 64 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more. We remember visiting police...
3 May 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights is pushing to set a land reform precedent in post-settlement support by which future land claims will follow.
LHR on Thursday made submissions in the Supreme Court of Appeal in a bid to have an earlier decision overturned relating to the Baphring community that is trying to have tribal land returned.
The Baphiring case was punted by the SCA as one of the first to set a...
30 April 2013
The North Gauteng High Court ordered today that eight separated minors living in South Africa be allowed to register for and attend public school. The issue arose after public schools were threatened with fines for allowing these children into school.
Separated children have been refused entry into South African public schools over of a lack of documentation and status because the Department of...
20 April 2013
Judgment has been reserved in the case challenging the closure of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office in the Eastern Cape High Court.
Lawyers for Human Rights and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Refugee Rights Centre are challenging the closure - the latest in a series of moves by the Department of Home Affairs to relocate RROs to the country’s borders.
LHR...
18 April 2013
Lawyers for Human Rights and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Refugee Rights Centre will appear in the Eastern Cape High Court tomorrow, 19 April 2013, to challenge the closure of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office (RRO).
LHR is representing the Somali Association of South Africa and the Project for Conflict Resolution and Development who first challenged the...
27 March 2013
Statelessness is a reality for more than 12-million people around the world, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In absence of a system to identify and protect the stateless in South Africa, it will be challenging to obtain reliable figures on this population.
A stateless person is one who is not recognised as a national by any country. Stateless persons are not protected...