Experts at a panel discussion convened to launch the ICJ’s Legal Guidance on Internet Shutdowns and Restrictions in Africa, live-streamed on 11 August, called attention to the wide-ranging human rights impacts of restrictions on the internet and shutdowns across the continent.
The staff of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) – a South African human rights non-profit organisation – have received death threats and other threats of violence, forcing the organization to temporarily close down its offices. This follows SERI’s decision to provide legal representation to a group of about 600 informal traders to help them challenge their eviction by the City of Johannesburg from their trading stalls before the Gauteng Local Division of the High Court, Johannesburg
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are disappointed by the 2 August judgment of the South African Constitutional Court in the Relebohile Cecilia Rafoneke v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services (Rafoneke) case, which the Court heard together with the Bruce Chakanyuka & Others v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services & Others (Chakanyuka) case. Rafoneke concerns the constitutionality of Section 24(2)(b) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (LPA), which prohibits otherwise qualified lawyers from practising law in South Africa solely on the basis of their citizenship.
Just over a quarter of the eligible electorate cast their vote in the 25 July constitutional referendum. Nonetheless, a new, autocratic Constitution, which is not supported by the majority of Tunisians and lacks democratic legitimacy and national ownership, will be imposed on them, said the International Commission of Jurists today.
The Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) condemn the killing of a university student and an apparently unjustified physical assault on six other students who sustained serious injuries at the hands of police during a protest at the National University of Lesotho (NUL).
Tunisia’s President, Kais Saied, has instigated and set in motion a process aimed at replacing the country’s existing consensus-based 2014 constitution in a way that is devoid of any legal basis, democratic legitimacy, inclusivity, accountability and transparency.
Nepal: Ensure Credible Transitional Justice Appointments
South Africa: Constitutional Court’s affirmation that principles of judicial independence are fully applicable to military courts is a welcome step forward
EU: Lawyers and civil society call for mandatory humanitarian clause in anti-smuggling directive
EU: Access to a lawyer in juvenile justice proceedings remains a key concern in several EU Member States