Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Wins PILnet Global Popular Choice Pro Bono Award

Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa’s (NRFSA) Social Impact team has been honoured with the prestigious PILnet Global Popular Choice Pro Bono Award. Participants at the PILnet Global Forum voted NRFSA’s contribution as the ‘most impactful’. This accolade recognizes extraordinary efforts to strengthen civil society, advance social change, and protect the public interest. 

Our team represented the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town in a groundbreaking challenge to the Refugees Act and its regulations in South Africa. The provisions of the Act allowed the Department of Home Affairs to view refugee applications as ‘abandoned’ if they failed to renew their asylum seeker visas within 30 days of expiry. This disregarded systemic challenges such as poor state administration, lack of capacity, and corruption that hindered timeous renewal. Refugees with ‘abandoned’ applications were viewed as illegal foreigners and subject to arrest and deportation to their home countries where they were many were at risk of facing persecution, torture and possibly death. 

The Constitutional Court's ruling, guided by arguments advanced by our team, declared these provisions irrational, arbitrary, and contrary to South Africa’s international law and constitutional obligations. Importantly, the decision upheld the principle of non-refoulement, ensuring refugees are not returned to countries where they face persecution.

This recognition reaffirms our commitment to protecting human rights and fostering meaningful change through legal advocacy. A heartfelt thank you to the Impact Litigation team and our client, the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, for their collaboration in achieving this milestone.

We are proud to be a part of a global effort that drives social justice and shapes a fairer world.