Dullah Omar Institute statement on behalf of the Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status in response to the activity report of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa. This submission focuses on the challenges related to the criminalisation of minor or petty offences at sub-national level. The submission notes that in several African countries, local law enforcement agencies often enforce subnational laws in an arbitrary, discriminatory and violent way which infringes on fundamental human rights. It was further noted that there is a lack of strong and effective internal and external oversight and monitoring mechanisms to regulate the enforcement practices of subnational law enforcement agencies to protect people against human rights abuses. The submission also highlights the existence in several African states of quasi-state and private security agencies or vigilante groups with delegated powers to prevent crime, maintain public order, police the use of public spaces, and in some cases, effect an arrest. The challenge, however, is that the majority of these security agencies are populated by informally trained personnel and enforcement is conducted in a brutal manner and is often characterized by a lack of due process. In general, the submission recommends that the African Commission and the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa should urgently prioritise the role of subnational governments in their work to promote the decriminalisation of petty offences.
This submission was made by Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR) to the NCOP Select Committee on Security and Justice on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Bill (B21B – 23) on 1 February 2024
This oral submission was made at the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services held public hearings on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Amendment Bill on 25 October 2023
This oral submission was made at the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services held public hearings on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Bill [B21-2023] on 25 October 2023
Dullah Omar Institute submission to Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights - Call for Input: Decriminalisation of homelessness and extreme poverty
The Detention Justice Forum, to which ACJR is a Coordinating member, made a written submission to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on the Correctional Services Amendment Bill B14-2023 on 14 July 2023.
Africa Criminal Justice Reform submission: The Judicial Matters Amendment Bill [B7-2023] in South Africa.
ACJR’s submission is in response to the call from the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions (UNSR) to collect information on practices for the investigation, documentation, and prevention of deaths in custody in the criminal justice context. The UNSR’s report aims to raise awareness about deaths in custody globally and to contribute to the protection of the right to life of those deprived of liberty, including practical recommendations and best practices on the effective investigation, documentation, and prevention of custodial deaths. This submission focuses on South Africa and pays particular attention to custody situations under the control of the police and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). The submission would inform the UNSR report to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2023.
This submission was made to the Subcommitee for the Prevention of Torture and Other and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) on 13 February 2023
It was reported from Guinea Bissau on 20 March 2023 that a new law will prohibit Islamic leaders using children for begging. The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló ordered that from Monday, 27 March 2023, child mendicity will be prohibited and that fathers or Koranic teachers of any child caught begging in the streets of the country would be arrested. The President considers shameful to send children in the streets of Bissau and neighbouring countries to raise support for their Koranic teachers. The regular practice perpetrated by some Islamic leaders have created an alarming phenomenon nationally and in the region. As members of the global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status advocating for the repeal of laws that target people based on poverty, status or for their activism, we are, however, concerned for those children who beg on the streets not sent by their religious teachers, but forced by their economic and social situation. For those children, mendicity may be the only means of subsistence because the state may not have adequate social, economic and other relief measures in place to combat their poverty. The full joint statement can be found here.
In December 2020, the Constitutional Court confirmed the order of constitutional invalidity made by the Western Cape High Court in Sonke Gender Justice NPC v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others regarding certain provisions of the Correctional Services Act dealing with the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services. The Court gave Parliament two years to rectify these issues; an approach that has been used previously by the Court. The two-year period will lapse on 3 December 2022, which is less than three months into the future. The Detention Justice Forum calls on all relevant state actors to make public the plan for meaningful public participation on the draft Bill and all steps necessary to ensure that the Sonke decision is substantively given effect to.
This submission is in relation to draft regulations published in Gazette 46048 of 15 March 2022
Statement in response to the activity report of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa: 79th Ordinary Public Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 14 May to 3 June 2024
