Letter to South African Deputy President Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Ensuring Migrants’ Access to ART
Human Rights Watch writes to strongly encourage you to consider and remedy deficiencies in the delivery of life-saving Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to non-citizen and mobile populations in South Africa.
August 25, 2008 Letter
Letter to South Africa on the Refugee Amendment Bill
The National Council of Provinces is currently deliberating on the Refugee Amendment Bill, which will be returned to your committee for final consideration before it is presented to the National Assembly. We write to urge you to utilize this opportunity to ensure that the right to access health services is explicitly included in the Bill in line with the South African constitution and international human rights law.
August 22, 2008 Letter
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The costs of marital rape in Southern Africa
By guest author Nada Ali
Published in The Independent
August 18, 2008 - For years now, women’s groups in Southern Africa have campaigned tirelessly to ensure that the Southern African Development Community adopt the Protocol on Gender and Development. Yesterday, the SADC finally took that historic step. Member states will be obliged to amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women across a wide range of issues, from provisions that require member states to enshrine equality in their constitutions, to firm commitments to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent. But while that’s a cause for celebration, the Protocol still does not refer explicitly to domestic violence, and it still doesn’t oblige states to introduce legal provisions that criminalise marital rape.
August 18, 2008 Commentary
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SADC: Adopt Gender and Development Protocol
Summit Leaders Should Act on Equality for Women
Southern African leaders should adopt the proposed Gender and Development Protocol at their upcoming summit after amending it to include crucial provisions deleted in 2007, Human Rights Watch said today. One of the most important provisions that should be put back in to the protocol would commit states to criminalize marital rape.
August 14, 2008 Press Release
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Before any resolution, Zimbabwe first needs justice
By Georgette Gagnon, Africa director
Published in The Independent
Talks in Zimbabwe aimed at breaking the political deadlock in that country cannot succeed unless the human rights violations that are the root cause of the crisis are addressed.
August 13, 2008 Commentary
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UN: Renewed Peacekeeper Mandate for Darfur
US Abstains in Support of ICC Case Against Sudan’s President
The Security Council’s renewal of the mandate for peacekeepers in Darfur without delaying legal proceedings against Sudan’s president reaffirms a commitment to justice and security for Sudanese civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.
July 31, 2008 Press Release
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A long record of torture
By Gerry Simpson, Researcher and Advocate, Refugee Policy
Published in New Statesman Online
Many Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa since 2005 – possibly numbering tens of thousands – have escaped persecution. They are refugees, although South Africa’s dysfunctional asylum system has yet to recognize them as such.
July 4, 2008 Commentary
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Neighbors In Need
Zimbabweans Seeking Refuge in South Africa
 | This 119-page report examines South Africa’s decision to treat Zimbabweans merely as voluntary economic migrants and its failure to respond effectively to stop the human rights abuses and economic deprivation in Zimbabwe that cause their flight and to address their needs in South Africa. Human Rights Watch spoke to almost 100 Zimbabweans in South Africa about their plight. |
HRW Index No.: 1-56432-343-9
June 19, 2008 Report
Download PDF, 451 KB, 119 pgs
Purchase online
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South Africa: Grant Temporary Status to All Zimbabweans
Government Should Halt Deportations, Allow Right to Work
The South African government should recognize that political repression and economic deprivation have forced Zimbabweans to flee their country and immediately stop deporting them, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to grant Zimbabweans in South Africa temporary status and work rights.
June 19, 2008 Press Release
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South Africa: Grant Temporary Status to All Zimbabweans
 | The South African government should recognize that political repression and economic deprivation have forced Zimbabweans to flee their country and immediately stop deporting them. Human Rights Watch called on the government to grant Zimbabweans in South Africa temporary status and work rights. |
June 19, 2008 Graphic
South Africa: Protect Victims of Xenophobic Violence
Provide Basics of Food, Water, Shelter, and Safety to Displaced
The South African government should ensure that “temporary shelter sites” for homeless and traumatized victims of recent xenophobic violence comply with international standards, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement require states to provide food, water, shelter, medical care and security to displaced persons.
June 5, 2008 Press Release
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South Africa: Punish Attackers in Xenophobic Violence
Government Should Protect Victims to Ensure Justice
The government should ensure that victims of xenophobic violence remain in South Africa to participate in bringing their attackers to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
May 23, 2008 Press Release
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UN Rights Council to Review South Africa
Universal Periodic Review of South Africa
South Africa’s human rights record will be scrutinized on April 15, 2008 by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva at a Universal Periodic Review Session that is likely to focus on abuses around HIV infections, sexual violence, and asylum procedures.
April 15, 2008 Memorandum
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Universal Periodic Review of South Africa
Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council
Emerging from a history of institutionalized racial inequality, South Africa has made admirable progress in transforming the state and society to ensure respect for fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, an independent judiciary, and free and fair elections. Nevertheless, widespread poverty, unemployment, persistently high levels of violent crime, and gender inequality continue to inhibit the full enjoyment of human rights.
April 7, 2008 Written Statement
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Human Rights Council Begins Universal Periodic Review
Will Assess India, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and 12 Others
The UN Human Rights Council will begin a new review process on April 7, 2008. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is the most innovative and ambitious instrument of the council and was set up to assess the human rights performance of all 192 UN member states over a four-year cycle.
April 6, 2008 Memorandum
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South Africa: Lead UN to Action on Somalia, Darfur and Burma
Use Security Council Presidency to Save Lives
South Africa should use its Security Council presidency in April 2008 to make significant progress on human rights crises in Somalia, Darfur and Burma, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to South Africa’s minister of foreign affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and members of the United Nations Security Council.
“The Security Council should be signaling hope to civilians in crisis, but so far it has failed the people of Darfur, Burma and Somalia,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “South Africa should lead the Security Council in a major new international effort to end horrible abuses in these places and save lives.”
March 31, 2008 Press Release
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South Africa: Lead UN to Action on Somalia, Darfur and Burma During Security Council Presidency
Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa
March 28, 2008 Letter
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'If you show that you support MDC, you will starve'
By: Tiseke Kasambala
Published in Mail&Guardian online
Credible elections in Zimbabwe were among the main objectives of the talks between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last year. But despite new regulations, Zimbabwe's polls are unlikely to be free or fair.
March 20, 2008 Commentary
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Zimbabwe Goes to the Polls
On March 29, 2008, Zimbabweans cast their ballots in presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and local council elections, the first synchronized elections since changes to the constitution in 2007. “Bullets for Each of You”: State-Sponsored Violence since Zimbabwe’s March 29 Elections, released on June 9, documents abuses by ZANU-PF officials and supporters—members of the armed forces, police, “war veterans,” and youth militia—against MDC activists and perceived MDC supporters, including beatings, torture and killings, in the wake of ZANU-PF’s defeat in the March 29 elections. It also examines the government of Zimbabwe’s role in perpetrating and inciting the violence for political gain, and its failure to end the violence and prosecute those responsible.
March 18, 2008 Special Focus
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Zimbabwe: Free and Fair Election Unlikely
Repression, Intimidation, Electoral Flaws Threaten March 29 Vote
As Zimbabweans head to the polls in the country’s March 29 elections, serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the government undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections, Human Rights Watch said today.
March 17, 2008 Press Release
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