Critically-needed child justice and s exual offences legislation that has been in limbo for almost a year remains a priority for her department, Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla says. A Business Day report says the issue of sexual offences and the protection of children has been thrown into sharp focus in recent weeks because of the SAPS uncovering child sex rings across the country. Some believe that if the sexual offences Bill was on the statute books it would have made it easier to prosecute the ‘customers’ of child s exual services as well as those guilty of trafficking. Full report in Business Day
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Rich husbands and wives in Britain who wish to protect their fortunes from the lottery of the divorce courts could soon be able to take advantage of US-style pre-nuptial agreements, says a report in The Independent. A long-awaited report published by an influential group of family lawyers calls on the government to make 'pre-nup' contracts binding on divorce settlements. The change in the law would put British couples on the same footing as American couples who are able to state exactly what happens to their assets after separation. Demand for pre-nuptial agreements in this country has soared after a number of a high-profile divorces.
Gay couples will not be able to have their marriages legally recognised as yet, as a great deal of legislative amendments have to be put in place before it can happen, according to Jan Stemmet, the co-chairperson of the Law Society of SA. The Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that the intended marriage between Marie Fourie and Cecilia Bonthuys is capable of lawful recognition as a legally valid marriage, provided the formalities in the Marriage Act are complied with. SABC News reports that the Acts that will have to be amended are the Marriage Act and related Matrimonial Property Act, the Administration of Estates Act and the Insolvency Act as a result of the court ruling. Stemmet suggested that it may take six months to a year for legislation to be passed. Full report by SABC News
There has been strong reaction to the court ruling approving same-s ex marriages. The Reverend Molefi Tsele, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, expressed disappointment at the ruling but said the council would have to live with the decision as it was based on the constitution, say reports in The Star and on the News24 site. The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference said the ruling contradicted the law of God. Its president, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, said: 'It shows that majority opinions are not always the correct ones. It also shows man-made laws can be contradictory to God's.'
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Five Appeal Court judges have ruled that no court may refuse to hear a mentally disabled person's testimony, reports Beeld. This landmark ruling was a unanimous decision by a full Bench of appeal judges who ruled that the case of a man must be reheard after he was acquitted of raping a mentally disabled teen because of a lack of evidence. During the trial of Sidney Katoo in the Port Elizabeth High Court, the judge refused the State's request to allow the mentally disabled 16-year-old rape victim to testify. The judge at the time used a stipulation in the Criminal Procedure Act that states that mentally disabled witnesses may not testify. But the Appeal Court judges ruled that mental disability alone could not be used to stop people from testifying. The only time a witness could be rejected on these grounds was if the person's condition was of such a nature that he or she was unable to understand the court proceedings or the importance of an oath. The judges also gave the State permission to again charge Katoo with rape, despite an earlier acquittal. Full report by Beeld on News24 site
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News24 reports that most of the daily hearings in the child s ex court unit at the Pretoria Regional Court are being postponed because of a shortage of magistrates. The courts were established four years ago in accordance with the Constitution, which stipulates that hearings involving child victims get priority. However, because of a shortage of magistrates, an average of 20 cases on each of the three court rolls have been postponed until April. The shortage comes after magistrates refused last month to preside over these courts on a full-time basis. Reasons given were that they refused to hear 'soul-destroying and exhausting' testimonies on an ongoing basis. This follows an altercation that developed between the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) and Regional Court President Willem Pruis. The NPA was upset that Pruis earlier had decided that the 500-plus cases on this court's roll be distributed evenly among all regional courts so that no one magistrate had to hear all the cases. Full report on News24 site
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A radio frequency tag that patients can affix like a bandage to ensure doctors perform the right surgery on the right person won government approval Friday. The tag, manufactured by SurgiChip Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., aims to prevent wrongful surgeries that records show kill thousands of patients a year. Read more
Kansas is as conservative as any state, but its capital city has taken a small step toward protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination. The Topeka City Council last week narrowly approved an ordinance prohibiting bias in city hiring or employment based on sexual orientation.
THE Church of England is yielding to increasing pressure to conduct gay “weddings” as the Civil Partnerships Act recognising same-sex unions comes into force next year.
Ceremonies by Anglican priests blessing lesbian and gay partnerships increased by 10 per cent last year to 300 in England alone.
The Supreme Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal against a Johannesburg High Court judgment in which it was held that a woman who had been raped by three policemen was not entitled to recover damages from the Safety and Security Minister. Judge Douglas Scott said this was a matter for the legislature and was beyond the court's jurisdiction.
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France has launched a pilot plan in which rapists and paedophiles will be offered chemical treatment to inhibit their s ex drive. The plan, reports The Independent, aims to reduce the population of French prisons where 8 200 men - or 22% of male inmates - are convicted s ex offenders. Of those, three out of four have been jailed for crimes of paedophilia. Justice Minister Dominique Perben said a two-year trial would be launched in January under which 48 repeat offenders will be offered counselling and treatment using two drugs that inhibit the development of male s ex hormones.
The Labour Appeal Court recently heard a case concerning the issue of retirement age. The questions that arose, reports the Daily Dispatch, were whether an employee can be compelled to retire and, if so, what age is regarded as the retirement age. South African law provides that it is unfair to dismiss an employee based on age unless he or she has reached the normal or agreed retirement age for a person employed in that capacity. The retirement age may have been agreed in the employment contract and then the employee can be required to retire when the specified age is reached. But if the age has not been agreed to, then the employer cannot simply fix the age for retirement for existing employees. Trying to do so would be a unilateral change to terms and conditions of employment, which would have no effect in law. Full report in the Daily Dispatch
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New York State Court of Appeals has ruled that children who have been exposed to abuse at home cannot be taken from their parents and placed in foster care. The ruling, reports The New York Times, formalises specific standards for removing children from homes where domestic abuse occurs, requiring that authorities exhaust alternatives and insisting that the possible threat to the child's health or welfare be imminent. The courts, in a unanimous decision, said it was not acceptable to take children out of their homes solely because they had seen the mother being beaten, suggesting that it would unfairly punish innocent women and even harm the children themselves. Instead, it said the authorities would have to show that the mother was indifferent to the psychological harm that repeated exposure to beatings caused the child in order to justify asking the courts to consider a removal.
The debate over how much force a person can use to defend their property, ongoing in SA, has also been revived in Britain where a judge said a farmer who shot a burglar acted reasonably. The Telegraph reports Judge Andrew Hamilton, sentencing the burglar to seven years in jail for a string of similar crimes, said it was ‘a pity’ that prosecutors had even thought of bringing charges of assault against the farmer, Kenneth Faulkner. The case has echoes of the conviction for murder of Tony Martin, a Norfolk farmer, after he shot dead a burglar at his farmhouse in 1999. The Court of Appeal ruled that Martin had used unreasonable force but reduced his conviction to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he had suffered numerous burglaries. Full report in The Telegraph
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In the second right-to-live case in as many months in the UK, the Family Division of a British High Court has again ruled in favour of doctors who had asked the court to allow them to withhold life-saving treatment for a terminally ill baby. The Independent quotes the judge as ruling Luke Winston-Jones, aged nine months, who has a rare genetic disorder, should not be placed on a ventilator if he stops breathing. His mother, Ruth, had refused to give her consent to withdrawal of treatment, claiming her son was a ‘fighter’ and accusing doctors of ‘playing God’ by deciding to let him die. Last month, another judge ruled that one-year-old Charlotte Wyatt, who was born premature and has severe mental and physical handicaps, should not be resuscitated if she stops breathing. Experts say more such cases may have to be decided by the courts because of advances in the treatment of sick babies.
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A transsexual MP in New Zealand, Georgina Beyer, has drafted legislation that will protect people who change their gender from discrimination. `The Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill, reports the New Zealand Herald, provides for ‘gender identity’ to be included as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993. Under the Act, people are not allowed to discriminate on grounds such as race or sex.
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