Liberia Publications

A sort criterion
Constructing pre-trial detention indicators for African contexts: Problems and proposals

This discussion paper arose from the conundrum faced by a paralegal organisation working in an African country in demonstrating both that pre-trial detention is a problem in that country, and that their work has an impact on the problem. The indicators currently employed by states and organisations relating to pre-trial detention have a range of shortcomings in the African context. These shortcomings need to be understood in interpreting indicator values. Indicators should be adjusted, and additional indicators should be incorporated into data collection practice in order to provide a more complete and accurate picture of pre-trial detention in Africa. This paper is intended as a starting point for a broader discussion of the pitfalls and possibilities for the development of indicators in relation to pre-trial detention in Africa

Constructing pre-trial detention indicators for African contexts: Problems and proposals

This discussion paper arose from the conundrum faced by a paralegal organisation working in an African country in demonstrating both that pre-trial detention is a problem in that country, and that their work has an impact on the problem. The indicators currently employed by states and organisations relating to pre-trial detention have a range of shortcomings in the African context. These shortcomings need to be understood in interpreting indicator values. Indicators should be adjusted, and additional indicators should be incorporated into data collection practice in order to provide a more complete and accurate picture of pre-trial detention in Africa. This paper is intended as a starting point for a broader discussion of the pitfalls and possibilities for the development of indicators in relation to pre-trial detention in Africa

Arrested in Africa: An exploration of the issues Arrested in Africa: An exploration of the issues

Recent research and advocacy efforts have drawn attention to the excessive use of and prolonged pre-trial detention in Africa. At any given moment there are roughly 1 million people in Africa’s prisons. Far more move through prisons each year. Their stay in prison, regardless of duration, starts with being arrested. Substantially more people are arrested than those who end up in prison for pre-trial detention. Pre-trial detention figures are thus a poor indicator of contact with the criminal justice system. The purpose of arrest and subsequent detention of a suspect is essentially to ensure the attendance of the person in court or for another just cause. The police’s powers of arrest are, in theory, curtailed to the extent that the arresting officer must be able to provide reasons for the arrest and continued police detention. Police officials have considerable discretion in executing arrests, especially when arresting without a warrant. This exploratory report focuses on arresting without a warrant and starts off with setting out the legal requirements in this regard by way of a case study. In order to understand current arrest practices, the report provides a brief description of the history of policing in Africa and concludes that much of what was established by the colonial powers has remained intact, emphasising high arrest rates, a social disciplinarian mode of policing, supported by myriad petty offences that justify arrest without a warrant. This combination enables widespread corruption and results in negative perceptions of the police. The report further argues that given the wide discretionary powers of the police to arrest without a warrant, it follows that not all people are at an equal risk of arrest, but rather that it is the poor, powerless and out-groups that are at a higher risk of arrest based on non-judicial factors. The report concludes with a number of recommendations calling for further research, decriminalisation of certain offences and restructuring of the police in African countries. Report by Lukas Muntingh

Submission to South Africa's Parliament - 2015 strategic planning session

This submission to the South African parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services' strategic planning session addresses the issues of long periods of pre-trial detention, low prosecution rates, the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, human rights abuses in prison, sentencing reform and effective prison oversight.

Journal Article: Unconscionable and irrational: SAPS human resource allocation

The Khayelitsha Commission revealed that areas that are predominantly populated by people who are poor and black are systematically allocated only a small fraction of the average per capita allocation of police personnel in the Western Cape. These areas also suffer among the highest rates of murder and serious violent crime in the province. The allocation of human resources to policing impinges on various constitutional rights. Given the inequity and irrationality apparent in the allocation of police personnel, the Khayelitsha Commission recommended that this method be urgently revised. This article reviews the evidence heard on the allocations and the method currently used to allocate police personnel, suggests an alternative method, and calls on the government to heed the recommendation of the Khayelitsha Commission that the state urgently revise its method of allocation of policing resources. By Jean Redpath and Fairouz Nagia-Luddy

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services

This submission deals with South Africa’s performance in relation to, and compliance with, international standards with reference to offender management, offender rehabilitation and independent monitoring, as was requested by the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services (the Portfolio Committee).

Pocket Guide to Arrest and Detention in Malawi Pocket Guide to Arrest and Detention in Malawi

This guide is for anyone who needs a quick reference to the laws around arrest and detention in Malawi. This may include police, court clerks, prosecutors, magistrates, paralegals and detainees. First there is an orientation to the criminal justice system and a diagram and summary of what happens in Malawi around arrest and detention, page 1. The main part of the book focuses on what the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code says. It starts with when and how arrest can happen and possibilities for release at the police station, page 4. This is followed by a section on how things happen in court and how people can be released by the court, page 12. There are special sections on the arrest and release of children, pages 7 and 11. There is also a list of children’s offences that are considered serious, see page 34, and there is a section on the maximum times allowed for the commencement and duration of trial, page 16. The rights of every person in Malawi, as well as the specific rights of those who have been arrested and detained are described, pages 18 - 21. The meanings of legal words can be found in the glossary near the back, page 22. At the very back is a long list of all the offences for which someone can be arrested in Malawi. These offences are divided into those that need a warrant for arrest, and those that do not, page 26

Challenging disadvantage in Zambia: People with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in the criminal justice system

This project investigated how individuals with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities are dealt with by the criminal justice system in Zambia, and developed recommendations for improving policy and practice. The project was undertaken by a consortium of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) comprising the Paralegal Alliance Network (PAN), Mental Health Users Network Zambia (MHUNZA), the Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA), the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD), the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) and the UK-based Prison Reform Trust. The work was funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Human Rights Initiative at the Open Society Foundations, and was overseen by a steering committee chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Muitos problemas que comprometem os direitos dos reclusos em prisão preventiva

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa realizada em Maputo, em 2012, sobre a prisão preventiva. As condições de reclusão e de acesso à representação legal de um grupo de reclusos que aguardam julgamento são analisados dentro do contexto do sistema penitenciário então em vigor em Moçambique. Enquanto a autora está ciente de que o quadro jurídico-legal do sistema penitenciário avançou nos últimos três anos, a pesquisa mostra que as condições de reclusão e acesso à representação legal de um grupo de pessoas em prisão preventiva em 2012 não respondiam aos princípios internacionais e nacionais que regulavam o sistema penitenciário no país.

Lawyer at the Police Station Door: How REPLACE Provides Legal Aid in Nigeria

The central element of the project, the Police Duty Solicitors Scheme (PDSS), sought to reduce the excessive use of pretrial detention by providing free legal advice to suspects at police stations—the point at which the decision to detain or to release pending trial is made. This 12-page illustrated briefing summarizes the successes achieved.

Innovative Efforts, Proven Results: How Timap for Justice Provides Legal Aid in Sierra Leone

In 2009, Timap for Justice began an innovative project to provide frontlinel legal assistance to pretrial detainees, using local community members who have received basic legal training as paralegals. The results have been impressive: Timap’s paralegals have succeeded in getting inappropriate charges dropped in 28 percent of cases, and have secured bail for an additional 55 percent of suspects

A Survey Report on the Application of Bond and Bail Legislation in Zambia 2014

This report by the Zambian Human Rights Commission was based on a survey conducted to collect information on factors affecting access and conditions regarding bail among people found to be in conflict with the law in Zambia. The findings are meant to provide a basis for the review of current bail legislation relating to bail conditions in Zambia by promoting easy access for suspects or inmates to bail regardless of their social and economic conditions.

Evidence obtained through violating the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in South Africa

This article was published in AHRLJ Volume 15 No 1 2015. Although South African courts have expressly held that any evidence obtained through torture is always inadmissible, the author is unaware of a decision from a South African court to the effect that evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is, like evidence obtained through torture, inadmissible in all circumstances. In this article, the author first deals with the issue of evidence obtained through torture and thereafter relies on the practice of international and regional human rights bodies, such as the Committee against Torture, the Human Rights Committee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the European Court of Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and some of the sections of the South African Constitution, to argue that South Africa has an international obligation to exclude any evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In support of this argument, the author relies on the jurisprudence of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal on the nature of the right to freedom from torture and argues that the same approach could be applied to the right to freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment

Time Limits Poster Time Limits Poster

This poster explains the various time limits which apply to arrest and detention in criminal procedure in Malawi.

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