Legal Assistance Centre
{{short description|Public interest law firm in Windhoek, Namibia}}
The Legal Assistance Centre is a human rights organization in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.{{Cite book|url=http://www.nid.org.na/images/pdf/ngo_management_training/Guide_to_Civil_Society.pdf|title=Guide to Civil Society in Namibia|publisher=Namibian Institute for Democracy|year=2009|isbn=978-999-16-860-9-7|location=Windhoek|pages=33–34}} The organization was established in 1988 during the apartheid era to litigate on behalf of people who were oppressed by the government{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/protectinghumanr0000welc|url-access=registration|quote=namibia legal assistance.|title=Protecting Human Rights in Africa: Roles and Strategies of Nongovernmental Organizations|last=Welch|first=Claude E. Jr.|date=1995|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-1780-3|location=Philadelphia|language=en}} and continues to operate today.
According to the newspaper The Namibian, the lawyers and paralegals who opened the centre "were immediately flooded with cases from people complaining about human rights abuses" and hundreds of court cases were launched against the apartheid South African government.{{Cite news|url=https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=5619&page=archive-read|title=The LAC: 16 years of promoting human rights|last=Tjombe|first=Norman|date=12 July 2004|newspaper=The Namibian|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/africa/namibia.htm|title=The Status of Human Rights Organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa Namibia|website=University of Minnesota, Human Rights Library}}
The centre continues to conduct public interest litigation{{Cite book|title=The Independence of the Judiciary in Namibia|last1=Horn|first1=Nico|last2=Bösl|first2=Anton|year=2008|isbn=978-99916-0-807-5|location=Konrad Adenauer Foundation|pages=197–198}} and expanded its mandate to incorporate public human rights education,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkpDAQAAIAAJ&q=%22legal+assistance+centre%22|title=Human rights education and advocacy in Namibia in the 1990s: a tapestry of perspectives: a collection of papers submitted at a Workshop on Education, Training, and Information Concerning Human Rights in Namibia, held in Windhoek, Namibia, 12 to 13 May 1993|author1=University of Namibia Human Rights and Documentation Centre|author2=Unesco|author3=United Nations Information Centre (Windhoek Namibia)|author4=Unesco Social Sciences Programme in Southern Africa|date=1995|publisher=New Namibia Books|isbn=978-99916-31-39-4|language=en}} research, law reform and free legal advice. Its work is guided by a board of directors.
Since Namibia's independence, the organization's areas of focus have included:
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- police brutality{{Cite book|title=The Justice Sector and the Rule of Law in Namibia|last=Nakuta|first=John|publisher=Namibia Institute for Democracy|year=2011|isbn=978-99916-865-6-1|pages=12, 14, 47}}
- immigration {{cite journal |last1=Bradley |first1=M.T. |title=Civil society, emigration and democracy in Africa: an alternative proposition |journal=The Western Journal of Black Studies |date=2005 |volume=29 |issue=9 |page=540+ |url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A159027866/AONE?u=lond95336&sid=AONE&xid=b71530fc}}
- women's rights{{Cite news|url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201802210860.html|title=Namibia: LAC Marks 25 Years of Advocating Women and Children's Rights|last=Nashuuta|first=Lahja|date=21 February 2018|newspaper=New Era}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-DZAAAAMAAJ|title=Unravelling Taboos: Gender and Sexuality in Namibia|last1=LaFont|first1=Suzanne|last2=Hubbard|first2=Dianne|date=2007|publisher=Gender Research & Advocacy Project, Legal Assistance Centre|isbn=978-99945-61-23-0|language=en}}
- children's rights
- people living with HIV{{Cite journal|last=Dumba|first=Linda|date=October 2010|title=Namibia: litigating the cases of sterilization without informed consent of HIV-positive women|journal=HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Review|volume=15|issue=1|pages=50–51|issn=1712-624X|pmid=21413628}}
- indigenous populations{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmhoDwAAQBAJ&dq=san+legal+assistance+centre+namibia&pg=PA245|title="Land is Life, Conservancy is Life.": The San and the N‡a Jaqna Conservancy, Tsumkwe District West, Namibia|date=2 August 2018|publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien|isbn=978-3-906927-02-2|language=en}}
- prisoners{{cite journal |last1=Bukurura |first1=S.H. |title=Emerging Trends in the Protection of Prisoners' Rights in Southern Africa |journal=African Human Rights Law Journal |date=2002 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=92–109 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/afrhurlj2&i=102.}}
- land rights{{cite journal |author1=Falk, T. |author2=Kirk, M. |author3=Lohmann, D. |author4=Kruger, B. |author5=Hüttich, C. |author6=Kamukuenjandje, R. |title=The profits of excludability and transferability in redistributive land reform in central Namibia |journal=Development Southern Africa |date=2017 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=314–329 |doi=10.1080/0376835X.2016.1269633|s2cid=157922837 }}
- inheritance{{cite news |title=Women's Property and Inheritance Rights in Namibia |url=https://sisternamibiatest2014.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/july-2004-vol-16-3.pdf |publisher=Sister Namibia |date=Jul 2004}}
- LGBT issues{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jf6gBwAAQBAJ&dq=Legal+Assistance+Centre+LGBT+Namibia&pg=PA28|title=Queer Mobilizations: LGBT Activists Confront the Law|last1=Bernstein|first1=Mary|last2=Marshall|first2=Anna-Maria|date=2009-09-01|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-9141-7|language=en}}
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History
The history of the Legal Assistance Centre is embedded in Namibia's struggle to end South Africa's apartheid occupation and brutal rule of the country. In the 1980s, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) was making progress in their fight for an independent state. However, human rights violations and the use of apartheid era law continued to justify inhumane, degrading and discriminatory practices.
On the legal front, lawyer Dave Smuts began pursuing public interest cases against the apartheid government. In 1987, Dave Smuts worked with churches in northern Namibia to successfully challenge the detainment of a group who had been held in prison without trial for several years. They were successful and together Smuts and church leaders began helping people obtain legal aid and spread information about laws.
In July 1988, the Legal Assistance Centre was officially opened in Ongwediva in northern Namibia by Dave Smuts and a group of lawyers and paralegals. The Legal Assistance Centre's founding was based on the principle of taking public interest legal cases to court and providing free services to clients. Additional offices were set up in Windhoek, Tsumeb, Walvis Bay and Rundu.
Nearly 500 cases were handled by the organization in its first year of operation, the vast majority involving human rights abuses (assault, rape, detention) perpetrated by security forces. Labour cases (unfair dismissal, non payment of wages, workmen's compensation claims) were also brought to court in the Centre's first year.
Notable cases
The Legal Assistance Centre has initiated a number of civil cases seeking injunctive relief and monetary awards on behalf of its clients. The Legal Assistance has also filed suits related to the conditions of incarceration for adults and children.
=Sterilization of women after childbirth=
The Legal Assistance Centre represented HIV positive women who were sterilized while at a state hospital. The women claimed the sterilization occurred without their informed consent by doctors employed at state hospitals. In 2012, LM&MI&NH versus the government of the Republic of Namibia, the women won their case at the High Court and awarded the women 1.2 million Namibian dollars in damages.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/30/world/africa/namibia-forced-sterilization/index.html|title=Namibian women were sterilized without consent, judge rules|last=Mabuse|first=Nkepile|website=CNN|date=30 July 2012 |access-date=2 March 2019}} The ruling was appealed to the Namibian Supreme Court, which upheld the High Court ruling{{Cite web|url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/win-victims-forced-sterilization-namibia|title=Justice for Three Women Who Were Forcibly Sterilized|website=Open Society Foundations|language=en|access-date=2 March 2019}} but dismissed the claim that the women's positive HIV statuses were the underlying reason for the sterilisation.{{cite web | url=http://namibialii.org/na/cases/NASC/2014/19.html | title=Government of the Republic of Namibia v LM and Others (SA 49/2012) [2014] NASC 19 |publisher=Namibia Legal Information Institute |date=3 November 2014 |access-date=7 November 2022}}
References
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