Jeff Handmaker

No Easy Walk: Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa

South Africa only began accepting individual applications for political asylum in 1994. A policy designed to recognize former Mozambican refugees for the purposes of a repatriation program became the (awkward) basis of the asylum procedure up until April 2000. Criticized by some, a lively discussion raising often-contradictory views began in 1996, leading to a policy reform process culminating in the Refugees Act in December 1998. The Act only came into force at the beginning of April 2000. This article analyzes the process of policy development in South Africa, focusing on practical and theoretical challenges facing the government in the implementation of the new Act. Special attention is given to temporary protection, the proposed containment of applicants in reception centers, the arbitrary manner in which asylum is currently determined, and inconsistencies between the interfacing of the Refugees Act and the proposed immigration legislation. The paper concludes by asserting that the new legislation can be effective, but only if the government builds capacity, and if the procedure allows a fair opportunity for asylum applicants to be granted a credible hearing.

Migration, Gender and Social Justice

Section I: Introduction - migration, gender and social justice: the research and policy agendas.- Section II: Transformation of social reproduction systems and migration: local-global interactions.- Section III: The state and female internal migration: Rights and livelihood security.- Section IV: Complexity of gender: embodiment and intersectionality.- Section V: Liminal legality, citizenship and migrant rights mobilization.- Section VI: Conclusion - the complexities of migration research-policy interactions.- Annex A - Portfolio of Migration Projects, 2006-2009 (21 May 2009).- Womens Rights and Citizenship Program.- Annex B - Profile of the Editors.

1 Migration, Gender, Social Justice, and Human Insecurity

This book examines the links between gender and migration and their implications for social justice thinking, both at the experiential and normative levels. It offers insights also into the uses of human security thinking as a framework for attention to social justice concerns, including in trans-border contexts, and to their intersectional complexity. The volume presents a diverse but selective set of empirical, theoretical, and methodological issues on gender in migration from migrant-centred and Southern perspectives. Its aim is to stimulate debate and discussion among migration scholars and professionals engaged in migration-related policy and to enable insights and enrich practices on gender and social justice.

15 Migrants’ Citizenship and Rights: Limits and Potential for NGOs’ Advocacy in Chile

In this chapter we address the structural and institutional constraints faced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assisting Peruvian migrants in Chile to advocate for migrants’ rights. We argue that these constraints have provoked reactive rather than proactive strategic responses by NGOs in their promotion of migrants’ rights. In addition, the unchallenged acceptance of a traditional notion of citizenship has placed Chilean NGOs as short-term service providers rather than as long-term advocates. We propose that a conscious recognition of the possibilities opened up by international legal regimes to confront nation-states’ regulation of migrants’ rights offers a pragmatic approach to navigating such limits.

In Search of a Human Face in the Middle East: Addressing Israeli Impunity for War Crimes

As a lawyer, Avril McDonald envisaged a world where humanitarian law would guide all states and their militaries; a world where combatants would be restrained and civilians protected. While her keen eye as a journalist recognised that the real world was infinitely more complex than the lawmakers had envisaged, she drew on both her intellect and her passion in her scholarly contributions towards a more just world. This essay addresses the response of Avril McDonald and others to one of the many conflicts Avril addressed her mind to, namely the behaviour of Israel’s military during its 2006 bombing of Qana in Southern Lebanon, which was followed by further aggression in Gaza in 2008–2009. Recalling the responses of states to South Africa’s military aggression in the 1980s, this short contribution reflects on Avril’s scholarly contributions in order to find a ‘human face’ through advancing international humanitarian law order to restrain Israel’s military and to protect civilians.

Advocating Accountability: The (Re)forming of a Refugee Rights Discourse in South Africa

This paper examines the roles and impact of civic initiatives in forming a refugee rights discourse and ushering in refugee policy in South Africa in compliance with its international obligations. Some inputs to this process have sought to ‘reformulate’ the law to fit political realities, while recent commentaries of the process have been limited to moralistic arguments supported by little more than legal rhetoric. Both miss the broader picture and fail to acknowledge the explicit role of civic society both in helping to frame policy and urging its proper implementation. Civic initiatives representing various constituencies in South Africa and abroad have played a central role in forming obligations, claiming rights and even determining state practice. South Africa presents an intriguing case study in testing the validity and practicability of civic society (non-State) efforts in advocating governments accountability in the protection of refugees, particularly in the making of the Refugees Act 1998.

‘Change will come in a barrel’: a tribute to Rudolph Jansen

markdownabstractThis is a Tribute article, recognising the scholarly and other contributions by long-time human rights and land reform lawyer, Advocate Rudolph Jansen SC, who died in Limpopo Province, South Africa on 25 November 2017. His passion for social justice was matched by a keen wit and abiding sense of humour, a combination that was reflected in his own twist to an iconic statement by Mao Tse-Tung, sardonically remarking that ‘change will come in a barrel’.

Mobilizing International Law in the Palestinian Struggle for Justice

Abstract Those involved in mobilizing international law to achieve justice for the Palestinians have invoked numerous legal and governance institutions, at both international and national levels. For various reasons, international law has understandably been regarded with a high level of skepticism by many Palestinians, particularly from legitimacy and effectiveness standpoints. However, law has also ignited the Palestinian civic imagination and has led to bold and creative initiatives, including efforts to hold both states and (corporate) non-state actors accountable through legal and other means, and even to construct alternative models for nation building. This introduction to a Special Issue of the Global Jurist on ‘International Law and the State of Israel’ emerges from an international conference that took place at Cork City Hall and at the campus of University College Cork in Ireland in March 2017. Our message for producing this Special Issue and indeed for our colleagues who organized the conference in the first place was simple: while we cannot afford to neglect law in envisioning alternative futures in Israel/Palestine (including statehood), justice always remains a guide.

Socio-economic rights in South Africa: symbols or substance?

markdownabstractBook review of: _Socio-economic rights in South Africa: symbols or substance?, edited by Malcolm Langford, Ben Cousins, Jackie Dugard and Tshepo Madlingozi, Cambridge University Press, 2014_ This comprehensive, edited volume of 15 chapters canvasses a wide range of contemporary perspectives on socio-economic rights mobilisation in South Africa, from various inter-disciplinary angles. For those who have followed the topic in recent years, the volume is a veritable ‘who’s who’ of scholars and scholar-activists involved in socio-economic rights mobilisation in South Africa, and in particular constitutional litigation. Several of the numerous, and often contested views on this important sub-area of human rights have previously featured in the pages of this journal.

Taking Academic Freedom Seriously: Exploring the Legal and Moral Underpinnings of BDS

textabstractThe call for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel that was launched by Palestinian civil society in 2004 represents a decisive turning point in the long-time Palestinian struggle for social justice and academic freedom and the broader struggle for Palestinian self-determination. Alongside petitions, worldwide demonstrations and other national and global advocacy initiatives, as well as a vigorous debate in the alternative and occasionally also the mainstream media, substantial scholarly literature has emerged. This literature introduces legal and moral arguments that underpin the broader call by Palestinian civil society in 2005 for ‘boycotts, divestment and sanctions (hereinafter “BDS”) against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights’. This essay builds on some of my earlier reflections and reviews six books (some in more detail than others) from among a growing pool of literature addressing the Palestinian calls for BDS, and the legal and moral justifications that reinforce these calls. I will explore the way in which the authors explain a way out of the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians and develop two positions that emerge from their contributions. Firstly, robust legal arguments, especially if accompanied by moral clarity, can provide a rigorous normative basis for why BDS against Israel is justified. Second, irrespective of one’s view regarding BDS, legal explanations alone can be rendered meaningless and can lead to highly misleading conclusions if they are not grounded in a social and political context. This essay will conclude that any discussion on international law and the morality of BDS must critically engage with not only the politics of law and legal institutions, but also the politics of resistance.