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Preserve your independence, court urges Namibia’s election commission

  • 19 July 2020
  • by Carmel Rickard

A full bench of Namibia’s high court has found that the country’s electoral commission acted unlawfully when it removed certain approved names from the list of candidates supplied by a political party and allowed other party members to replace them and be sworn-in, instead. Two members of Namibia’s Popular Democratic Movement brought the application when the electoral commission permitted a number of PDM members, not on the PDM list approved by the electoral commission before the polls, to replace those who had been approved by the commission. In its decision, the court said the commission acted beyond its powers in allowing the party to substitute names after the elections. It could not allow parties to ‘parade’ candidates for election and then after the polls, ‘put up totally different persons who were never “marketed” to voters as candidates.’

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What orders did the court issue in the case brought by the family of Collins Khosa?

  • 16 May 2020
  • by Carmel Rickard

The court made a number of declarations of principle that must continue to operate even during the state of disaster caused by the lockdown and other steps taken by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19. It also issued several orders about what the security forces and their leaders, including the Ministers of Police and of Defence, must do in relation to the lockdown and the behaviour of the security forces during this time. Further, the court gave strict deadlines for complying with these orders.

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A win for all of South Africa against brutality by security forces

  • 16 May 202016 July 2020
  • by Carmel Rickard

In a major victory for human rights, the family of Collins Khosa and their neighbours have won a court application for orders against the security forces and their bosses. And they will no doubt be awarded significant damages when that part of the litigation is eventually heard. But they are not the only winners: everyone in South Africa has won because of this restatement by the courts that the government and the security forces will be held to account for how they behave – even during restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 – and that their behaviour will be measured against the standards of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

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Posthumous win for Kenyan human rights activists

  • 7 May 2020
  • by Carmel Rickard

Many decades after they were detained and tortured, two prominent Kenyan activists who campaigned for multi-party democracy and human rights have been awarded posthumous compensation related to their detention and torture under previous repressive governments. The court that awarded compensation to them also made formal declarations that the fundamental freedoms of the two, Charles Rubia and John Serony, had been violated, as had their right not to be subject to torture and other unlawful abuse. Though it had been many years since the two were detained and tortured, the presiding judge said it was ‘not too late to peer into the past and correct injustices that may have occurred in our history.’

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Malawian law students lose their challenge to Covid19 university closure

  • 16 April 202021 April 2020
  • by Carmel Rickard

A group of four students studying law in Malawi have lost their high court case challenging the validity of the President’s Covid-19-related directives. They also lost their challenge to the closure of their university in terms of those directives. But it was not all bad news for them – at least the students won commendation from the presiding judge for ‘taking their future seriously’.

 

Read judgment by Judge Zione Ntaba, 7 April 2020

Read judgment by Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda, 3 April 2020

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Recent Posts

  • Preserve your independence, court urges Namibia’s election commission 19 July 2020
  • African Court tells Tanzania: your constitution violates basic rights 16 July 2020
  • Government’s ‘contempt’ raised in challenge to Tanzania’s bail-ban laws 22 May 2020
  • Malawi appeal court judges set new election standards 22 May 2020
  • What orders did the court issue in the case brought by the family of Collins Khosa? 16 May 2020

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