Southern Africa Legal Services Foundation

The Southern Africa Legal Services Foundation, Inc. supports the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa’s largest and oldest public interest law organization.

When its doors opened in 1979, the Legal Resources Center (LRC) challenged the most oppressive aspects of apartheid — forced removals, detentions, and the pass laws — through the South African courts. These early cases had a profound impact upon the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Africans.

As apartheid ended, LRC lawyers played integral roles in drafting South Africa’s new constitution. Nelson Mandela appointed Arthur Chaskalson, LRC’s co-founder, to serve as the first president of South Africa’s Constitutional Court.

Today, LRC’s 75 staff members confront the challenges left by the legacies of apartheid — inequality, poverty, and disease. Our initiatives include:

• Combating HIV/AIDS — including the court ruling blocking ads that claim vitamins can reverse the disease, and work to fast-track regulations to ensure that AIDS orphans receive appropriate care.
• Protecting the rights of refugees in South Africa — including representing Zimbabwean refugees who were arrested during a midnight raid of the Central Methodist Church by the Johannesburg police.
• Recovering land taken unfairly from communities during apartheid.
• Representing families before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission— including LRC counsel who argued that the police involved in Steve Biko’s murder tried to use the Truth Commission without revealing any personal responsibility for Biko’s death, persuading the Commission to withhold amnesty in two separate applications.
• Protecting the environmental rights of marginalized communities.