Lawyers for Human Rights and the role of legal mobilization in the realization of land and housing rights in South Africa

This research paper focused on the ongoing issues of inequality in land and housing in South Africa. Over 20 years after end of Apartheid in South Africa, inequality along racial lines has continued, especially regarding land and housing rights. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the legal mobilization tactics used by the land, housing, and property rights program of the public-interest NGO Lawyers for Human Rights has contributed to the realization of land and housing rights in the country. This was done through semi-structured interviews and observatory research over three weeks with the program. It has been concluded that the programs capacity allow it to contribute to the realisation of land and housing rights by holding not only the government but also other parties who have benefitted from the laws of Apartheid accountable and by empowering those whose rights have been infringed upon. Secondly, the program contributes to the realization of land and housing rights by translating the highly coded language of the South African legal system into a language that is understandable to their clients and by educating their clients and the general public on their rights and how to navigate the legal system. Lastly, the program contributes to the realization of land housing rights in the country by challenging several structural biases within the civil society space that allows more people to access the law.