The Legal Assistance Centre is a human rights organization in

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

, the capital of

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. The organization was established in 1988 during the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era to litigate on behalf of people who were oppressed by the government and continues to operate today. According to the newspaper ''

The Namibian ''The Namibian'' is the largest daily newspaper in Namibia. It is published in English and Oshiwambo. History The newspaper was established in 1985 by journalist Gwen Lister as a weekly newspaper reliant on support of donors, which aimed to ...

'', 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. The centre continues to conduct

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). It refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and demonstrates the availability ...

and expanded its mandate to incorporate public human rights education, 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: * police brutality * immigration * women's rights * children's rights * people living with HIV * indigenous populations * prisoners * land rights * inheritance * LGBT issues

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 Dave Smuts (David Smuts) is as of 2023 one of the four judges on the Supreme Court of Namibia and the founder of the Legal Assistance Centre. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Smuts began practising law in 1980. He assisted in founding Nami ...

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 Ongwediva is a town in the Oshana Region in the north of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Ongwediva Constituency, Ongwediva electoral constituency. it had 33,777 inhabitants and covered 4,102 hectares of land. Ongwediva has seven ...

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

Tsumeb Tsumeb (; ) is a city of around 35,000 inhabitants and the largest town in the Oshikoto Region, Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb, since its founding in 1905, has been primarily a mining town. The town is the site of a deep mine (the ...

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

and

Rundu Rundu is the capital and the largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River, about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted ...

. 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. The ruling was appealed to the Namibian Supreme Court, which upheld the High Court ruling but dismissed the claim that the women's positive HIV statuses were the underlying reason for the sterilisation.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.lac.org.na Companies based in Windhoek Law firms established in 1988 1988 establishments in South West Africa Human rights organisations based in Namibia Legal advocacy organizations