The South African Refugees Act1 makes a distinction between an asylum seeker and a refugee. The Act defines an asylum seeker as “a person who is seeking recognition as a refugee in the Republic”. A refugee on the other hand, is a person “who has been granted asylum” in the Republic.2 The legal position in South Africa is that before a person is recognized as a refugee, he or she is protected by the Bill of Rights to a certain extent. In the case of Lawyers for Human Rights v Minister of Home Affairs the Constitutional court confirmed that the protection afforded by the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, including illegal foreigners and asylum seekers.3 This means that asylum seekers and refugees are entitled to most of the rights in the Constitution except those specifically reserved for citizens. Practically though, a refugee enjoys more rights than an asylum seeker. It is therefore in the interest of asylum seekers to have their status as refugees determined. The process of applying for refugee status can be a challenge for those seeking refuge in the Republic of South Africa. For applicants coming from non-English speaking countries, language barrier can also present its own challenges. In terms of the Refugees Act, the first application is to the Refugee Reception Officer at the refugee reception office. The application must be made in person.4 When an asylum seeker is deemed fit to qualify for asylum, he or she will be issued with a permit in terms of section 22 of the Refugees Act. The permit allows the asylum seeker to temporarily reside in South Africa until the finalisation of the asylum claim. This permit does not mean that the asylum seeker is already recognised as a refugee. The permit is an indication that the asylum seeker’s application as a refugee is not yet finalised. The application is considered finalised when it has gone through the hearing before the Status Determination Officer and any review or appeal following from that decision. It is the Refugee Status Determination Officer who will grant asylum or reject the application.5 For people applying for refugee status, the determination by the Status Determination Officer may in itself mark the beginning of the process to be repatriated back to the country they were running away from in the first place. An aggrieved applicant can also apply to have the adverse decision reviewed or even lodge an appeal in accordance with the provisions of the Refugees Act.6 For as long as the application is still pending, the government cannot deport any asylum seeker. An asylum seeker who enters the Republic of South Africa, either through a port of entry or illegally faces many challenges before he or she could reach a refugee reception office. Those who come in through a port of entry face being turned away by Immigration Officers due to lack of documentation. Often, asylum seekers find it hard to reach the refugee reception offices as there is no co-operation between the Immigration Officers, the South African Police Service and the functionaries in the refugee reception offices. To make things worse, the Immigration Amendment Act has reduced the days from fourteen to five, for asylum seekers without valid documentations to reach any refugee reception office. Since refugee reception offices are located only in five cities in the country, these have conditioned asylum seekers and refugees to stay and make their living in those cities as they are required to make frequent renewal of their permit. The closure of some of the refugee reception offices like the Johannesburg refugee reception office has caused a major concern to asylum seekers and refugees. This persistent closure of refugee reception offices may be seen as a further persecution in the eyes of asylum seekers and refugees. The inability of the different functionaries to differentiate between asylum seekers and economic migrants adds to the problem concerning the process of refugee status determination. Instead of seeking to identify people in need of protection from persecution or events seriously disturbing public order, the process is used as an immigration control and this causes more people to be turned away or returned to countries where their lives may be at risk. The communication between the asylum seeker and all the functionaries of the Department of Home Affairs is very important. The lack of professional interpretation functionaries to help asylum seekers who need interpretation contributes to the problems asylum seekers face. Often, asylum seekers have to provide their own interpreters if the Department is unable to do so. The purpose of the study is to investigate the status determination process from a South African perspective and to make recommendations which will try to resolve the problem(s) identified. / Public, Constitutional, and International / LL. M.

Thesis. 1976. B.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch. / Bibliography: leaf 55. / B.S.

The aim of this Code of Conduct for activists is to provide a set of basic guidelines as to how activists and members of our organization should conduct themselves; both inside and outside the organization. We feel that it is important in 2 respects: (i) It highlights the dangers of negative tendencies and the desirability of good qualities. In this way we hope to improve the quality of activists involvement in our organization by providing them with a set of rules and methods that will allow them to achieve their political goals easily and effectively. (ii) Activists represent not only their own organization but the cause of the national democratic struggle in general. As such, the way we behave and conduct ourselves reflects on this cause. Activists must therefore be seen to act in a comradely, disciplined and democratic fashion. It must be pointed out that although this code of conduct applies to all members of our organization it is obviously more relevant to those activists who play an active role in the decision making process, regularly come to meetings and volunteer for the different tasks at hand.

This dissertation examined the relationship between support services for adult survivors of sexual assault and judicial outcomes. Specifically, this study explored survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process. Although "victim unwilling to participate" is the primary reason given by the police for cases not progressing to prosecution, we know little about most aspects of survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process, especially beyond initial reporting of the assault. The steps to prosecution are dependent on one another yet a survivor's willingness to participate in these steps is a fluid process. The primary research question explored was Are there clusters of survivors according to their responses to specific items on a Willingness to Participate scale? Additional research questions focused on differences among possible clusters of survivors. A semi-structured interview protocol was completed with 46 survivors of adult sexual assault. Cluster analysis was conducted and three clusters emerged. Findings suggest that support services were helpful to those who were highly willing to participate but that willingness was insufficient to influence judicial outcomes. Future research concerning judicial outcomes in sexual assault cases should focus on strategies to dispel myths about rape among survivors, within the judicial system, and with potential jurors as a means of improving both survivor participation and judicial outcomes.

Bibliography: p. 367-378. "This thesis is about the origins and original intentions of law; that which I call raw law. Law emanates from Kaldowinyeri, that is the beginning of time itself. Law first took form in song. In this thesis I argue that the law is naked like the land and its peoples, and is distinguished from that known law by the colonists, which is a layered system of rules and regulations, an imposing one which buries the essence and nature of law."

Bibliography: leaves 230-248. This thesis examines the causes and consequences to women who, as a result of their marital of de facto relationship incur debt from their spouse/partner. First, it aims to describe the legal and social construction of sexually transmitted debt through a feminist analysis of the 1998 Australian High Court legal case of Garcia v National Australia Bank Ltd. It aims, second, to contribute to feminist understanding of financial decision-making within households by focussing on those decisions that lead to the accumulation of debt within the domestic sphere.

Bibliography: p. 367-378. / x, 378 p. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / "This thesis is about the origins and original intentions of law; that which I call raw law. Law emanates from Kaldowinyeri, that is the beginning of time itself. Law first took form in song. In this thesis I argue that the law is naked like the land and its peoples, and is distinguished from that known law by the colonists, which is a layered system of rules and regulations, an imposing one which buries the essence and nature of law." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Law, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 230-248. / v, 248 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis examines the causes and consequences to women who, as a result of their marital of de facto relationship incur debt from their spouse/partner. First, it aims to describe the legal and social construction of sexually transmitted debt through a feminist analysis of the 1998 Australian High Court legal case of Garcia v National Australia Bank Ltd. It aims, second, to contribute to feminist understanding of financial decision-making within households by focussing on those decisions that lead to the accumulation of debt within the domestic sphere. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Social Inquiry, 2001

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

Not available / text