Southern African Litigation Centre

promoting human rights and the rule of law in southern africa

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Announcement: SALC launches new project, titled "Using Public Interest Litigation to Strengthen Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Southern Africa". This project is funded by UNDEF.

31st January 2012
SALC is delighted to announce that it has secured funding from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
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News Release: Lesotho Law Banning Women From Becoming Chiefs is Unconstitutional and Must be Repealed, Says SALC

17th January 2012
The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) today joined the fight to repeal parts of Lesotho’s discriminatory Chieftainship Act, which only allows the first-born son to succeed to chieftainship, by filing submissions in a landmark case that is due before the country’s Constitutional Court next month. <
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SALC Joint Statement: Swaziland Shows Contempt for Rule of Law as Minister of Justice and Judge are Dismissed

30th September 2011
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Southern Africa Development Community Lawyers Association (SADC LA) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) voice the utmost alarm at reports that Judge Thomas Masuku has been dismissed from his office as judge of the High Court of Swaziland and that Swaziland’s Minister of Justice has similarly been dismissed for refusing to sign Judge Masuku’s dismissal order.
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Swaziland: SA Risks a Lot for Swaziland

12th April 2011
WHEN Maite Nkoana- Mashabane was sworn in as minister of international relations and co-operation two-and-a- half years ago, she promised all and sundry that SA’s foreign policy would be formulated by South Africans.
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Swaziland: South Africa Agrees to Swaziland Financial Bailout

3rd August 2011
South Africa has agreed a 2.4bn rand (5m; £218m) loan to help Swaziland cope with a cash crisis.
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SALC Report: The Suspension of Judge Thomas Masuku: Another Instance of Swaziland’s Ongoing Rule of Law Crisis

8th August 2011
The attached report describes the current judicial proceedings against Justice Thomas Masuku of Swaz....
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SALC Statement: Swaziland: Judge Masuku’s Disciplinary Hearing

15th August 2011
Mbabane – Swaziland High Court Judge Thomas Masuku’s disciplinary hearing conducted by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), at which the Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi presided, was concluded last week, Thursday 11 August 2011. The JSC’s judgment is now awaited although no indication was offered by the JSC as to when it would render judgment.
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SALC Joint Statement: Support for the Swaziland Law Society as Judicial Crisis Escalates

23rd September 2011
The Southern Africa Development Community Lawyers Association (SADC LA) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) note the unprecedented action on the part of Swaziland lawyers who, on Wednesday 21 September, marched in large numbers through the streets of the capital, Mbabane, to protest Swaziland’s ongoing judicial crisis and the role of the Chief Justice in instigating this crisis.
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Swaziland: Cops Block Foreign Jurists, Activists

12th August 2011
MBABANE – There was tight security at the High Court in preparation for the hearing of suspended Judge Thomas Masuku yesterday.
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SALC Joint Statement: Swaziland: Failure To Expeditiously Resolve Judge Masuku Matter

22nd August 2011
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Southern Africa Development Community Lawyers Association (SADC LA) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) note that the Swaziland Judicial Services Commission (JSC) met on Friday, 19 August 2011, a full week after the hearing of the charges against High Court Justice Thomas Masuku. Yet no decision has been communicated nor have reasons been provided by the JSC for the rulings made during the JSC’s hearing of 11 August 2011.
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Swaziland: Justice Thomas Masuku Fired

29th September 2011
This publication has reliably gathered that the authorities have issued a decision that Judge Masuku’s position as a High Court Judge be revoked with immediate effect.
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Swaziland: Swazi Police Fire Water Cannons to Stop Protests

12th April 2011
MANZINI, Swaziland (AP) — Police in Swaziland fired water cannons and tear gas, beat people with batons and arrested activists to prevent pro-democracy protests Tuesday in sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: DRC Courts Too Weak to End Impunity, Amnesty Says

10th August 2011
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) needs a stronger judicial system to combat impunity for the crimes being committed by its army and other groups, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
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SALC in the News: Outcry Over Secretive Hearing on Swazi Judge

23rd August 2011
National and international law bodies on Monday strongly criticised the closed-door hearings conducted by Swaziland's Judicial Service Commission (JSC) against Judge Thomas Masuku.
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SALC in the News: Judge’s Hearing Bodes Ill for Swazi Reform

11th August 2011
IF SWAZILAND was going to make even a token gesture at meeting the less than taxing conditions attached to SA’s recent loan, and if SA was even halfway serious about insisting that those conditions are met, this week’s disciplinary hearing of Swaziland High Court Judge Thomas Masuku would discreetly disappear.
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DRC: DR Congo women march against sexual violence

17th October 2010
Olive Lembe Kabila headed the rally in the town of Bukavu in the east of the country, where Congolese and foreign armed groups have operated for years.
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DRC: Militia leader may be tried on crimes against humanity, court rules

19th October 2010
An international court cleared the way Tuesday to try a former politician and militia leader for crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, rape and pillaging.
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Genderlinks.org. za - SADC media take a stand against HIV and AIDS

26th November 2008
On 1 December 2008 over 130 media houses in 11 countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region will publicly launch HIV and AIDS policies as part of commemorations to mark World AIDS Day.
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Swaziland: King, AIDS activists condemn Swaziland official's claim

26th August 2010
The king of Swaziland on Thursday broke rank with his top adviser who has come under fire for saying the nation's AIDS epidemic is exaggerated to help benefit drug companies.
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DRC: International justice denied?

12th August 2010
GOMA, 12 August 2010 (IRIN) - On a typically busy morning in North Kivu’s capital city Goma, nobody at the bank paid much attention to Bosco Ntaganda and his bodyguards. It had been a hectic few days for the rebel commander-turned-army general, who had also attended meetings with the provincial governor and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila.
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DRC: DR Congo rebel leader arrested over mass rapes

6th October 2010
UN peacekeepers and the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested a rebel leader suspected of leading attacks involving mass rape.
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Swaziland: Party Rails At 'Brotherhood' Protecting Swazi King

20th August 2010
Johannesburg — THE banned People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) of Swaziland yesterday railed at Southern African leaders for turning a blind eye to repression and human rights abuses in the kingdom.
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DRC: Homosexuality an 'abomination'

25th October 2010
We would like the law to punish homosexuality, bestiality and necrophilia. Morally, homosexuality is a deviation, and spiritually, it is an abomination," Ejiba Yamapiale told AFP.
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South Africa: Thirty years on, SADC leaders reflect on progress

16th August 2010
Leaders from 14 Southern African countries on Monday began a two-day meeting in Namibia to discuss regional integration on the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
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DRC: DR Congo police on trial for killing Floribert Chebeya

15th November 2010
The trial has started of eight officers charged with the murder of prominent human rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Southern Africa: Concern About Human Rights, Media Freedom

17th August 2010
CIVIL society organisations in southern Africa are calling for SADC governments to respect human rights and focus on good governance.
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Swaziland: HIV threat "exaggerated", says King's brother

18th August 2010
MANZINI, (PlusNews) - Remarks disparaging programmes to reduce HIV infections, made by Swaziland's second top-ranking traditional leader, have sparked disbelief and anger among AIDS activists.
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DRC: Cause of death unclear for Congo activist -autopsy

8th July 2010
No certain cause of death, likely heart-related Impacts and stress may have triggered heart complaint KINSHASA, (Reuters) - An international autopsy team looking into the death of a prominent Congolese human rights activist was unable to give a conclusive cause of death.
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Swaziland: Sipho Jele had seditious document on Incwala

9th July 2010
MBABANE – A seditious document on the sacred Incwala ceremony is said to have been found by police in Sipho Jele’s room at Ncabaneni.
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DRC: Lifetime of Tracking Killings Ends in Activist’s Own

27th June 2010
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Floribert Chebeya Bahizire went about his work with an accountant’s meticulousness. He was trained to count numbers, and his life’s work became adding bodies: those jailed, those tortured, those killed by a repressive government.
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