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Executive Summary & Institutional Milestone

The first quarter of 2026 has been a transformative period of deep impact, systemic legal victories, and organizational evolution for Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). Building on our 47-year legacy of advancing constitutionalism, human dignity, and socio-economic equity, Q1 2026 marked a historic institutional milestone. Following a deliberate commitment to stability and transformative feminist leadership, LHR announced Nabeelah Mia’s appointment as the incoming National Director, working alongside Kayan Leung as our new Deputy Director. This establishes LHR’s first-ever all-female executive leadership team—a milestone that positions us as a resilient, inclusive, and people-centered institution ready to confront the escalating global and regional pressures facing human rights defenders.

Litigation Updates: Major Victories and Court Interventions

During this quarter, LHR took several critical matters to the highest courts in South Africa, seeking to secure key decisions and defending fundamental human rights across our diverse programmes.

• Championing Civil Society and Non-Profit Protection: On 9 February 2026, LHR, alongside ten allied non-profit organisations, welcomed a landmark judgment delivered by the North West High Court. The court ruled in favour of protecting the operating environments, financial viability, and autonomy of civil society organisations acting on behalf of marginalized communities. This judgment forms a major defensive shield for human rights defenders and non-profits, ensuring the state cannot weaponize over-regulation to silence or cripple social justice movements.
• Defending Refugee Rights and Freedom of Movement: On 12 February 2026, LHR represented the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. This intervention directly challenged regressive, restrictive administrative barriers implemented by the Department of Home Affairs that effectively blocked asylum seekers and refugees from securing valid legal documentation and exercising their right to freedom of movement. By dismantling these unlawful administrative backlogs, LHR and the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town seek to help prevent hundreds of families from falling into forced undocumented status, protection risks, and exploitation.
• Challenging Institutional Cruelty: Prison Torture Case in the SCA: On 17 February 17, 2026, LHR appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in a critical matter addressing accountability for prison torture. LHR is fighting to ensure that systemic state-sanctioned violence and the degrading treatment of incarcerated persons do not go unpunished. Through this litigation, we aim to establish rigorous accountability frameworks for Department of Correctional Services officials, reaffirming that the constitutional right to be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment applies to every person within South Africa’s borders, without exception.

Advocacy, Policy, and Legislative Reform

LHR's made various advocacy interventions

• Draft Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection: LHR submitted a comprehensive, human rights–based legislative analysis to the Department of Home Affairs concerning the Draft Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection.
• Amplifying the #NotFitForPurpose Campaign on Gender-Based Violence: LHR advanced a vital policy intervention by submitting formal public comments to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities on behalf of the #NotFitForPurpose campaign regarding the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NCGBVF).
•  LHR participated in the Human Rights Festival at Constitutional Hill, hosting and participating in panel discussions on the Stilfontein Human Rights Impact Assessment, Migration, Health and Access to Health, Access to Justice and Land, Housing and Property Rights.

On-the-Ground Impact & Law Clinics

Through our physical Law Clinics operating in Johannesburg and Pretoria, GlobalGiving funds have directly maintained our daily operational capacities, enabling our legal counsellors and attorneys to provide free, high-quality legal advice, secure Children’s Court interventions, and launch urgent court applications. Specifically:

• Refugee & Migrant Rights and Statelessness: We continue to run specialized legal assistance interventions, helping vulnerable individuals transition from being unlawfully undocumented to obtaining secure legal statuses.
• Land and Housing / Environmental Rights: Our teams remain rooted in grassroots struggles, protecting families against unlawful evictions, supporting mineworkers' health rights, and advancing gender-inclusive climate justice following the launch of our accredited short courses.
• Penal Reform and dentention rights: We continue to run a toll-free hotline to assist migrant detainees, ensuring that unlawful detention does not occur.

Looking Forward

As we look toward the remainder of 2026 under our newly consolidated, historic executive leadership, LHR is energized and uniquely positioned to push back against systemic state failures, protect human rights defenders, and demand accountability from both public and private actors.

We are deeply grateful to the GlobalGiving community. Your partnership ensures that we remain an unyielding pillar of hope and constitutional defense in South Africa. Thank you for standing with us to keep #MakingRightsReal.

• Social Assistance Judgment (PDF)